A highly experienced pilot chartered by football agent Willie McKay to fly new Emiliano Sala from France to Wales drafted in a 'rusty' part-time replacement for the job, it was revealed today.
The Piper Malibu carrying Cardiff City's new £15million signing vanished over the Channel Islands on Monday January 21 after hitting bad weather en route to Wales from
France.
Mr McKay wanted his usual pilot David Henderson, 60, to carry the Argentinian striker to Britain but he drafted in David Ibbotson, 59, after asking him: 'Do you want to spend a weekend in Nantes?'
Mr Ibbotson, a boiler engineer and part-time pilot, told a friend he was 'a bit rusty' with the instruments of the 35-year-old aircraft and it did not have the licence to carry paying passengers.
Describing the time period since, Mr McKay, a mega-agent renowned for his contacts in France, told l'Equipe sports newspaper that it has 'been an absolute nightmare for us.'
He said that if he had not allowed Sala to return to his old club, Nantes, to say goodbye to his former teammates and put his beloved dog Nala in kennels 'he would still be with us'.
Cardiff offered him a commercial flight for the trip, but Mr McKay offered him a private plane 'for free'.
Mr Ibboston, who was known to have financial problems, is said to have told Mr Henderson that he had lost his credit card.
This led to Mr Henderson having to pay for Mr Ibbotson's hotel in France, and for the flight itself.
Mr Henderson's details were accordingly given to officials at Nantes-Atlantique airport, leading to initial fears that he had been piloting the doomed flight.
'Since it was Henderson's bank card, everyone thought he was on the plane,' said Willie McKay.