This report from the Times
Emiliano Sala was travelling on a plane believed to belong to Scottish agent Willie McKay when he disappeared over the English Channel. The Argentine forward, who became Cardiff City’s record signing after joining the club from Nantes in a £15 million transfer last week, is feared dead after his light aircraft disappeared from radar screens, although a search has resumed this morning.
Sala was travelling in a Piper PA-46 Malibu aircraft, a single-engine, six-seat plane, with the pilot the only other passenger on board as he made the journey back to Cardiff on Monday evening after returning to Nantes to say goodbye to his former team-mates. The plane is registered to a holding company in Suffolk called Southern Aircraft Consultancy, with a registration number N264DB, but is believed to be owned by McKay, an influential and experienced agent.
McKay is not Sala’s representative, but was involved in brokering the transfer between Cardiff and Nantes and appears to have offered to arrange the player’s travel arrangements. The plane has yet to be found, but there is no suggestion that it suffered a technical fault or was unsuitable for making such a journey. McKay has excellent contacts clubs in the south of France in particular and has brought many French and African players to the Premier League over the years. McKay had not responded to The Times at the time of publication.
The Cardiff chairman Mehmet Dalman confirmed today that the club were not involved in making Sala’s travel arrangements. Cardiff have access to several jets and offered to assist, but he told them his travel plans had already been made as it was a personal rather than a club trip.
“I can say to you categorically that the plane had nothing to do with Cardiff City,” Dalman said. “We were not involved in booking the plane. In fact, we are trying to ascertain ourselves exactly what did happen. The club is looking into the matter and we want to find answers too.
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. I can’t tell you who arranged the flight because I don’t know at this stage — but it certainly wasn’t Cardiff City.”
Richard Taylor of the Civil Aviation Authority said today that the Piper PA-46 was capable of making such a journey safely.
“Single engine aircraft can be chartered,” Taylor said. “We don’t know what the status of this particular flight was — whether a commercial or private flight. There’s nothing preventing a single engine aircraft flying commercially at night. They were restricted to daytime under commercial operations until a few years ago for a turbine engine aircraft. They can now fly at night and in difficult conditions. But we don’t know what engine this aircraft has.”
https://www.thetimes.co.uk/article/p...ckay-28h7k8vc8