A man who organised the flight which crashed, killing footballer Emiliano Sala and the North Lincolnshire pilot has today admitted one charge
At Cardiff Crown Court
Last updated 18th Oct 2021
David Henderson, 67, has pleaded guilty to a charge of attempting to discharge a passenger without valid permission or authorisation, relating to the flight in which footballer Emiliano Sala died.
Henderson, of Hotham, East Yorkshire, pleaded guilty when he asked to be rearraigned on the eve of his trial at Cardiff Crown Court.
He is to stand trial accused of endangering the safety of an aircraft, an offence under the Air Navigation Order (2016), brought by the Civil Aviation Authority (CAA).
Henderson is alleged to have arranged the flight carrying 28-year-old Sala and North Lincolnshire pilot Dave Ibbotson, 59, which crashed north of Guernsey in January 2019.
The single-engine Piper Malibu aircraft was bringing the striker, who was involved in a multimillion-pound transfer deal, from Nantes in France to Cardiff where he had signed for the Bluebirds, then a Premier League club.
The body of Sala was recovered from the seabed the following month, but neither the body of Mr Ibbotson, from Crowle, Lincolnshire, nor the plane's wreckage have been recovered.