I have no reason to doubt the statement from the club but something doesn’t add up here
1) There are reports that his mother said the aircraft was arranged by the club
2) He doesn’t seem to be at all comfortable with light aircraft so was he someone who would lease a plane and then go out and hire himself a pilot
3) At the very least the club had knowledge of his travel plans and I would have thought would have taken a close interest in the safety of their very expensive “asset”