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LONDON (Reuters) – A small plane that crashed last month in the Channel killed Argentine footballer Emiliano Sala was not allowed to perform commercial flights, British investigators said Monday.
The British Air Accident Investigation Bureau stated that the aircraft was authorized to conduct "private" flights in which the pilot and the passenger were involved.
"The base of the passenger transfer has not yet been determined, but the pilot has already transported passengers on a cost-sharing basis," the office said in a preliminary report released on Monday.
The plane crashed on January 21 between the French city of Nantes, where Sala was part of his team, in the Welsh capital to join his English club Cardiff City.
Sala's body was found on February 7th, while the fate of pilot David Ebotsson remains unknown until now because he has not been found.
The football agent, Willy MacKay, and his son, Mark, have signed the agreement with the French club Nantes.
Willie told the English media earlier that Mark had organized Sala's trip and that he had done the same thing to a number of middlemen involved in the transfer.
According to the preliminary report of British investigators, the small plane, a type of "Piper PA-46 Malibu" registered in the United States.
The investigators pointed out that since the flight record or pilot license had not yet been found, it was not possible to confirm whether Ebotson was on a night flight.
According to the report, the aircraft took off at 19:15 and, after 43 minutes, the flight controllers continued to ask the pilot to investigate the flight of the aircraft at a minimum altitude of the route specified. Meteorology at the time showed "heavy rains" in the flight zone.
At 20:02, the pilot requested permission to lower the altitude of his aircraft so that he could fly under conditions allowing "vision with the naked eye". At the request of the air traffic controllers if he needed a further reduction, he replied "no".
But Ebotson came back and asked for it after 10 minutes, indicating that the plane had dropped twice and got up twice before disappearing from the radar screens.
Investigators said that part of the wreckage had been found to a depth of 68 meters below sea level. The plane "had been badly damaged and the main part of its structure was divided into three parts, connected by electrical wires and other equipment ".
The aircraft was not equipped with a black box, available on commercial aircraft, to record flight data and sound recordings in the cockpit.
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