That only applies in Scotland.
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This is a tangled web that somebody will get to the bottom of in the fullness of time. Or will they as the AAIB have specifically stated that their role in investigating the incident will not be to apportion blame? If it is not their responsibility whose is it? There are many questions to be answered surrounding the pilot, the agent, the person who arranged the flight and the suitability of the plane for such a journey in known icy conditions and it needs to be clarified whether the flight was commercial or not as that raises a number of licensing issues.
One of the oddest things that requires a fuller explanation is the report from Nantes airport that Henderson's passport was scanned through security on the night in question but didn't get on the flight. That seems unlikely to me as it was Ibbotson who flew Sala out to Nantes. However, there might be - and probably is - a perfectly reasonable explanation but I hope someone somewhere will be looking at this and the other points mentioned. Henderson's explanation that security must have made a mistake can be easily proven as there must be CCTV and a copy of the scanned passport somewhere and presumably someone will investigate this. Of course the mistake, if there was one, could have been on the part of the newspaper who reported it. Who knows?
The owner has already been named elsewhere. In summary, a plane built and registered in USA, owned (on paper) by a female in UK, held in Trust in UK and available for hire. A bit like renting a car, the actual owners are not usually the organisation you rent it from. This of course leads to grey areas when it comes to responsibility in a hire car accident. Driver....manufacturer, local authority, car maintenance company, other driver, driver's company (if hired for work)? I've done a lot in the past regarding risk assessment and training of staff for school trips in UK and abroad. Suffice to say it's not suprising that schools are turning away from running trips. It's a legal minefield when something goes wrong....as is the Sala situation.
It may well have been that ibbotson borrowed hendersons credit card to pay airport fees in nantes which is why the authorities suspected henderson was in nantes.
Ibbotson had 18k of debts in ccj so unlikeky he gad a credit card.
I find it hard to believe that Ibbotson would have accepted the job just on the basis of 'expenses', when he was allegedly in so much debt, especially considering this was a multi million pound 'transaction'. More likely cash was paid, or was to be paid, probably kept under-the-counter so as to avoid the flight being deemed as a professional trip which would have rendered it outside regulatory rules...
And not necessarily cash. A few weeks later an airline ticket in the post, a nice weekend break paid for, a few bottles of single malt by courier. If the pilot has been accurately reported as being in debt, CCJs x 4, it might be the case that cash plus expenses was given the nod. Risky.... easier to trace maybe. Depends where the originator of the deal has their bank account(s).
But that is expenses which Ibbotson is perfectly entitled to receive as a non commercial pilot. He can work for expenses but not profit. The other explanation is that a holder of a PPL needs to do a certain number of hours and often pilots do work for expenses just to bump their hours up to the required level.
The flight would never have taken place without the existence of a requirment to transport Sala to Nantes and back, therefore I believe we are in the realms of contract law here and it's one for the legal professionals to sort out. This is besides the fact that some negligence may have also occurred
More paper revelations
https://www.telegraph.co.uk/football...venue-customs/
The player agents who helped arrange Emiliano Sala’s doomed flight over the English Channel have been battling a winding up order from HM Revenue and Customs, Telegraph Sport can disclose.
Mercato Sports – a company registered in the names of Mark McKay and the wife of his businessman father, Willie McKay – was due to face the High Court two days after Sala’s flight disappeared en route from France to Wales.
Last night, McKay senior reacted furiously when approached for comment over the HMRC claim. He insisted the bill had been cleared and also indicated the mix-up took place because the Government had the company’s address wrong. A High Court official said a follow-up court date had been set for this month, but McKay claimed the case had been closed.
The HMRC battle is one of two legal rows involving the family in recent months, it is understood. Mercato Sports and Mark McKay were also in dispute with Everton over a 2017 player transfer. The Merseyside club are understood to have refused to pay an agreed fee over a row involving the company’s Football Association registration.
Sala’s single-engined flight disappeared on Jan 21. Both Mark and Willie have released statements confirming their involvement in helping arrange the flight free of charge to Sala. Willie described how he told experienced pilot David Henderson: “Dave, I need a plane.” However, part-time engineer Dave Ibbotson, 59, was at the controls when the Piper Malibu is believed to have crashed after leaving Nantes for Cardiff
Willie McKay was made bankrupt in 2015 and an FA source confirmed that only Mark McKay remains registered with the governing body as an intermediary.
The legal wrangle with Everton over the 2017 transfer is ongoing, according to McKay. He said the club still owed the company money, but details surrounding the case are limited. A legal report filed last September says:
“The claimants alleged that in 2017 they brought an unnamed footballer (“AB”) to the attention of the defendant football club (“Everton”). They claimed payment pursuant to an implied contract or retainer or by reason of unjust enrichment. Everton denied liability and further sought a stay of proceedings on the basis that Rule K of the FA Rules operated as an arbitration agreement between the claimants and Everton. There was no dispute that the Second Claimant (“Mr McKay”) was an intermediary registered with the FA. In those circumstances, it was accepted that Mr McKay’s claim would be stayed. However, the position as regards the First Claimant (“Mercato”) was less clear.”
Last night Willie McKay attacked The Telegraph for looking into his company’s business dealings, but the agent had voluntarily provided details about his activities a day earlier.
In messages giving unique insight into the vast figures and politics behind a Premier League transfer, McKay had sent L’Equipe newspaper a copy of an email he had sent to Sala just two weeks before the Argentine died.
The message suggests the player’s mother could claim £1 million if he agreed to sign from Nantes. McKay then tells Sala that Neil Warnock had “fallen in love with you” because the Argentine was a “typical English centre-forward, like Drogba or Alan Shearer”.
McKay added in the letter: “It is said that you did not want to go to Cardiff. It is probably our fault because we have said in the media that other clubs like West Ham, Everton, etc were interested in order to create an interest around you.”
McKay suggests he can eventually get Sala a move to “Manchester, Liverpool, Chelsea, and Liverpool” should he sign for Cardiff. He wrote on Jan 8: “We are not interested in personal affairs; finances, holidays, baby-sitting, that is not our business.”
McKay referenced the multi-million pound deals that his family had been involved in, adding: “We make transfers! More than 600 until today, from Didier Drogba, to (Nicolas) Anelka, (Dimitri) Payet, (Jean Michael) Seri, (Andre-Frank Zambo) Anguissa. Let us introduce you to the way we operate and how we came to this Cardiff City saga.
“We work for clubs in France, and for players who want to be transferred to England. As far as you are concerned, we have talked to all the clubs, including Manchester, Chelsea, Liverpool. We think you could end up in such clubs. We approached Nantes, as we do with many players in other clubs, to obtain the mandate of sale.
“We are not preventing you from working with another agent, but most players are very satisfied with our mediation. We do not say ‘we are like a father to a son to our players’. No, if you had not been a footballer, these people would not be interested in you. In the end they are only interested in the money. What we all want a lot of, of course. That’s why we like to work with just the clubs. No sentiment, we’re just doing business.”
The emails were initially published in French newspaper L’Equipe. McKay told The Telegraph: “I sent the emails to L’Equipe because I want the truth to come out. This is out how it works.” He said his family had been left “devastated” by events over the last week.
Crash investigators are poised to launch a sea-bed search after indicating the single-engined aircraft came down somewhere off the coast of Surtainville, on the Cotentin Peninsula. Cushions from two seats believed to belong to the were discovered on a beach about 20 miles from the last known position of the aircraft.