Originally Posted by
meleagertoo
Surely still wouldn't have been legal if Henderson had flown it due to the FAA's strict rule of exactly equal share of costs (Sala told flight was 'free' to him), pilot put up in hotac at someone else's expense (valuable consideration/expenses) and inability to prove travel was for a common purpose.
Even if Mc Kay does own the aircraft and Henderson is his pilot it could only be a legal corporate flight if Henderson flew it, which he did not. Does Henderson have a FAA licence? Anyhoo, what of the status of the outbound leg on the Eclipse? Every chance that it was just as dodgy as the accident flight.
Finaly, how - just how did Henderson's id get checked at Nantes? We've been told by Ffrench authorities that three peoples' id were whecked for the flight but only 2 flew. This must be a significant part of the strory.
Sala's girlfriend's remark about the football mafia is telling too - sounds very much like she's seen and heard things from people she dislikes and mistrusts intensely and she believes them involved in htis 'charter". I wonder who that could possibly be?
I would think it is academic as to who was paying the pilot in this instance, it could be as simple as WMcK asking his personal pilot to fly someone to & fro, whether WMcK has his personal pilot on a retainer is a question that I suspect has already been asked. Now if the personal pilot then subcontracts the work to someone else is another question that the person giving out the job needs to be answerable to, it would seem the personal pilot of WMcK is the one who was paying the costs for the actual pilot from his funds, I guess another question is " Who gave the personal pilot the funds to give to the actual pilot? " Someone was certainly the Paymaster & it is either the McKay's or Henderson himself.
Where it gets messy is if WMcK thinks he has paid his personal pilot to do the flying, if the personal pilot then gives the work out to a subcontractor unbeknown to WMcK it then becomes
a case of the buck stops with the personal pilot. The HOTAC really doesn't matter one iota because whilst Dave Ibbotson was away from home he had to stay somewhere & he wasn't gaining financially from the HOTAC charges.
It is assumed that Dave Henderson does have an FAA Licence, I suspect his details have been pulled from the FAA Database because there isn't any visible records that show him being FAA licenced with a UK address but that isn't to say he isn't one of the US addressed David Henderson's in the database.
The Eclipse flights aren't a bone of contention, they weren't the accident flight & were invariably operated by IR pilots ( maybe DH was in the Eclipse on those flights in some capacity? ) It seems apparent that the Eclipse was a 'pick up & go' where it arrived in Nantes & Emiliano Sala was rumoured as being escorted to the aircraft & then flown to Cardiff so the crew might have never gone landside at Nantes?
The 3 sets of ID's is an area where a lot of questions are being asked, the big question is " Was there 3 different people seen by the French Airport officials or were 3 ID's shown by 2 different people? " Now any French Airport official would instantly recognise Emiliano Sala but would they really know who the other person/s showing them ID's are?
If 3 males were standing in front of the Airport officials that would explain the 3 ID's but if there were only 2 males in front of them I would guess they would only see 2 ID's ?
Now supposition could be that 3 ID's were shown during the transit through the airport but not to the same airport officials?
I have myself shown an ID card as identification at one part of an airport & then used a different ID at another part of the airport. This could be my passport at the first point of contact & then my pilots licence at the second point of contact. Both my ID's show my name clearly...... Let's play devils advocate here, What if the first ID was the pilots passport at point one & then at point two he showed the ID in the form of the Pilots licence of AN.Other who has an IR so he could file IFR? it might be a bizarre thought but it would explain the 3rd ID being seen & also feasible to cover the initial filing of an IFR Flightplan. I am not saying that is what happened but it is plausible.
Most of the issue is " Where was Dave Henderson whilst all this was going on? " Was he the 3rd person or was he never in Nantes? It seems categoric that his ID was checked by some Airport official, it would be useful to know if it was his passport or his pilots licence or perhaps his driving licence? I doubt very much it was his Library card or his Starbucks loyalty card or even his credit/debit card they saw?