The organizer of the 2019 flight that killed the footballer Sala sentenced to 18 months in jail
The businessman who organized the 2019 flight that killed Argentine soccer player Emiliano Sala in an accident in the English Channel was sentenced this Friday to 18 months in jail for endangering the safety of an aircraft.
David Henderson, 67, was convicted by a jury in Cardiff of endangering the safety of a plane in the death of the 28-year-old forward.
He will also simultaneously serve a three-month sentence for attempting to discharge a passenger without a valid permit or authorization.
Henderson admitted that charge, which generally refers to a commercial operator that does not acquire the proper licenses to charter a jet commercially.
The single-engine Piper Malibu plane carrying Sala crashed into the sea on January 21, 2019, killing him and 59-year-old pilot David Ibbotson.
Sala had signed for Cardiff City, then in the Premier League, for a club record of £ 15 million (18 million euros, $ 20 million) from the French side of Nantes.
A British plane crash investigation report published in March last year concluded that Ibbotson was not licensed to fly the plane or fly at night.
He assessed that he lost control and flew too fast while trying to avoid bad weather, and that both he and Sala were affected by carbon monoxide poisoning before the accident.
Sala’s body was recovered from the seabed in February 2019, but Ibbotson’s was never found.
(AFP)
