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Remembrance of Emiliano Sala: fans have laid flowers at the stadium in Cardiff for the professional footballer (archive image)
Photo: Aaron Chown / dpa
About two and a half years after the fatal plane crash of professional footballer Emiliano Sala, the organizer of the flight was found guilty by a court.
A jury in Cardiff decided that the 67-year-old businessman David H. was responsible for endangering the safety of the machine.
The 28-year-old Sala was to move from French club FC Nantes to Welsh club Cardiff City as part of a million dollar transfer.
On the flight between the two cities, the single-engine Piper Malibu business jet crashed into the English Channel near the island of Guernsey on January 21, 2019.
The Argentine Sala and the 59-year-old pilot David Ibbotson died.
Pilot without a license
The amateur pilot did not have a valid license for commercial flights.
He had also had no night flight training and was likely to be carbon monoxide poisoned at the time of the crash.
The plane was also traveling too fast.
It was only after almost two weeks of searching that the plane was discovered on the ocean floor.
Entrepreneur H. arranged the flight, but was unable to fly himself because he was in Paris with his wife.
Instead, he asked Ibbotson, who was regularly on his behalf, to take over the flight.
The sentence is to be announced at a later date.
ptz / dpa
