Emiliano Sala: pilot admitted he was ‘rusty’, had battled controls

The pilot of the plane that vanished with football star Emiliano Sala aboard told friends he’d struggled with its instruments, it has emerged.

A tribute to footballer Emiliano Sala in front of the entrance of the FC Nantes football club training centre and, inset, pilot David Ibbotson. Main picture: AFP

The pilot of the aircraft that vanished with the Premier League footballer Emiliano Sala on board had told friends days earlier that he was “a bit rusty”.

David Ibbotson, 59, a gas engineer whose main flying activity was taking parachutists for jumps, was at the controls of the 35-year-old aircraft when it disappeared from radar screens over the Channel on Monday night.

He had admitted struggling with the instruments on the Piper PA-46 Malibu after a flight from Cardiff airport to Nantes, western France, on Saturday.

The Federal Aviation Authority register in the US records him as having a British private pilot’s licence, issued in 2014, which allowed him to fly the most basic single-engine aircraft, not a commercial licence, which would be required for scheduled flights. He passed a medical two months ago.

MORE: Sala’s haunting final words

Sala, 28, had returned to France at the weekend to say goodbye to former team-mates at Nantes FC, having become Cardiff City’s record signing at pounds 15 million. The Argentine striker had planned to fly to Britain on Tuesday before his first game with his new club.

During that flight he told friends: “I’m on the plane. It looks like it’s falling apart. If in an hour and a half you do not hear from me, I do not know if they will send someone to pick me up because they will not find me ... I’m scared.” He also said that the aircraft was making “weird noises”.

Willie McKay, the agent who brokered Sala’s transfer, appears to have offered to arrange his travel. Mehmet Dalman, Cardiff’s chairman, said: “We spoke to the player and asked him if he wanted us to make arrangements for his flight which, quite frankly, would have been commercial. He declined and made his own arrangements.”

Mr Ibbotson lived with his wife, Nora, 51, and ran a gas and plumbing company. The British Parachute Association said he was one of its registered pilots and had sat on its ruling council.

He checked into Les Champs d’Avaux hotel near Nantes airport on Saturday and told a friend via Facebook that he had difficulties with the aircraft’s instrument landing system (ILS). “Was not too bad when I got there but I’m a bit rusty with the ils, in France now,” he said. The friend replied: “Rusty with the ILS?! I can’t believe that!” Mr Ibbotson wrote: “You wanna bet, a little on the high side hehe, better than on the low side.”

On Monday he set off at 8.15pm and requested descent from 5,000ft over Guernsey. Jersey air traffic control lost contact at 2,300ft, 15 miles north of Guernsey. The search, now described as a recovery, was suspended last night. A relative at Mr Ibbotson’s home in Crowle, Lincolnshire, was too upset to comment.

The Piper Malibu was registered in the US and based at Retford airport, Nottinghamshire. David Henderson, 63, a veteran pilot, was featured with it in a BBC documentary in 2015. He said: “Ice can build up on the surfaces of the aircraft, on the propeller and the wings, and if it gets too great the aeroplane would ultimately stop flying. And the only way in most of the aeroplanes we fly to get rid of ice is to descend into warmer air and the ice will dissipate.”

David Learmount, consulting editor at Flight Global and a former RAF instructor, said: “It was dark and there was cloud around so it could be disorientation. If it was engine failure there is no question about it, the pilot would have told air traffic control.”

Additional reporting: Neil Johnston, Matt Hughes

The Times