Pilot of fatal Emiliano Sala flight told friends aircraft was “dodgy”

The pilot of Emiliano Sala’s plane told friends the aircraft was “dodgy” in a conversation which was accidentally recorded, before the flight which killed the Argentine footballer.

Sala, 28, was flying to complete his £15 million transfer to Cardiff City from French club Nantes when the plane crashed into the English Channel. The player’s body was recovered from the wreckage when it was discovered 68m (223ft) below the English Channel, two weeks after the crash. Plane N264DB was left on the seabed.

The body of the pilot – 59-year-old David Ibbotson, from Crowle in North Lincolnshire – has never been found, but in audio exclusively obtained by the BBC he can be heard saying “I’ll be wearing a life jacket” on the journey from France to Wales.

He told a friend he heard a “bang” on a previous flight and complained that he could feel a “very low mist” inside the 35-year-old Piper Malibu plane. Footage has also been released showing the last moment the pair were seen alive.

“I’m mid-Channel and ‘bang’,” Ibbotson told friend Kevin Jones about his flight to Nantes. “I’m flying along and then ‘boom’. I thought, ‘what’s wrong?’ so I put everything forward and checked my parameters, everything was good and it was still flying, but it got your attention.”

He added: “That Malibu, occasionally you’ve got like a mist every so often You can feel it, very, very low throughout the airframe.”

Ibbotson said he also realised that the plane’s left brake pedal wasn’t working after landing at Nantes Atlantique Airport. “This aircraft has got to go back in the hangar,” he told his friend.

Ahead of the flight back to Cardiff, Mr Ibbotson added: “Normally I’d have my life jacket between my seats but tomorrow I’ll be wearing my life jacket.”

It was previously revealed that part-time pilot Ibbotson didn’t have a licence to cary passengers.

Ibbotson had also been banned from flying the Piper Malibu by its owner after two airspace infringements months earlier, but David Henderson who organised the flight allowed him to fly, according to The Guardian.

The conversation was accidentally recorded and has since been obtained by the BBC’s Transfer: The Emiliano Sala Story podcast.

The man who organised the flight that killed Sala – David Henderson, 67, of East Riding in Yorkshire, was jailed in November last year for 18 months.

An inquest jury previously concluded that Sala died after the plane taking him to Cardiff broke u in mid-air and pumped toxic carbon monoxide levels into the aircraft before crashing. He had been charged with endangering the safety of an aircraft and pleaded guilty to attempting to discharge a passenger without valid permission or authorisation after organising the flight.