Recently Ibbotson's wife Nora and daughter Dannielle were interviewed on television. Nora stated that Ibbotson had a Private Pilots Licence and was qualified to carry passengers. It was stated that he flew purely as a hobby. When pressed about if he received payment Nora, she chose not to answer the question.
What we also know about Ibbotson is that he was a Gas Safe (Corgi) engineer, and under law entitled to service boilers, issue gas certificates and install and sign out new gas supplies. I think we all agree with with the law in the UK on gas fitting. Those violating gas regulations are rightly dealt severely by the courts in the UK.
Now then, what if a ATPL or CPL holder in the Scunthorpe before this accident decided as a hobby on his daysoff to do gas fitting for 'expenses', surely Ibbotson and local gas fitters would report him or her, likewise the local authority and Gas Safe would be pressing for a prosecution.
Whether Ibbotson was operating for hire and reward is not perhaps the issue, more to the point he was operating as a commercial pilot, yet not qualified to do so. In the same way I am not qualified to carry out surgery or act as a pro bono solicitor, solicitor being a protected title in law.
The crowdfunding page is worth visiting, for the comments. Many of Ibbotson's supporters seem critical that the football industry are not fully funding the search for Ibbotson, David Beckham has been identified as someone who should throw in some money towards the search, I ask why? Likewise they are very critical of the UK AAIB, which is highly respected worldwide, they do not understand the remit of the AAIB, in so much they are not an agency for the recovery of bodies. In the case of Lockerbie, my understanding was that not all the bodies were recovered. Of course there might had been further searches by the AAIB for the body, if they suspected that the pilot was incapacitated, but the was little indication of this.
The AAIB will know more than us, but the evidence suggest that the pilot was not qualifed to fly in IMC, or at night, icing was likely and the post mortem evidence from Sala suggests a high speed impact, so a controlled forced landing can be ruled out.