Emiliano Sala: Pilot told friend doomed plane was 'dodgy'

The last time a football player was seen alive was when he boarded a private plane that would crash and kill him.

For the first time, the footage shows a footballer about to board a plane in France and crash in Wales.

The pilot is heard in the audio saying "I'll be wearing my life jacket" before the flight.

He said the plane was not good.

The plane that crashed into the English Channel was carrying Argentine footballer Sala, who had just become the highest paid player in the English top flight.

He was flown back to western France by a part time pilot who didn't have a licence to carry passengers.

He was going to return on Monday the day of the crash.

For the first time the technical difficulties Mr Ibbotson had on the journey to France have been revealed in the audio of a telephone call.

He said he heard a bang on the flight and felt a mist inside the plane.

Mr Ibbotson told Kevin Jones that he was mid-Channel and "bang" as he prepared to leave.

I'm flying and then boom. I wondered what was wrong. Everything was good and it was still flying, but it got your attention.

Sometimes you have a mist every so often, that Malibu. It can be felt very low throughout the plane.

Mr Ibbotson said he noticed the left brake pedal wasn't working after he landed at the airport. He told his friend that the aircraft needed to be returned to the hangar.

The conversation was accidentally recorded and has been made public.

Image source, AAIB | Nantes Atlantique Airport

Mr Ibbotson said he would be wearing his life jacket between his seats on the flight.

The two people who were on the plane were dead.

In a voice note to his friends, the footballer expressed his fears about the plane as it taxied on the runway at the airport.

The player said that the plane he was on looked like it was falling apart. Mr Sala told his friends that someone wouldn't find him if he crashed.

He wanted more time to say goodbye to friends and team mates in France before returning to Wales for his first training session with his new club.

Willie McKay, the man who helped broker the transfer, used another pilot, David Henderson, to charter a private flight between the two cities.

He called in Mr Ibbotson because Henderson couldn't do it.

The Argentine wasn't aware that Mr Ibbotson wasn't qualified to fly him. An amateur pilot, the gas fitter did not have a licence to carry passengers or fly in the dark.

An air and sea rescue was launched after the plane lost radar contact over the English Channel.

The pilot lost control of the plane as he descended to avoid clouds and it crashed into the English Channel north of the Channel Islands at an estimated 270mph.

The footballer would have been unconscious from carbon monoxide poisoning, and the pilot would have been affected as well.

Two weeks after the crash, the player's body was found under the English Channel at a depth of 69m. The plane was not on the surface.

Henderson, who arranged the flight, was sentenced to 18 months in prison for recklessly endangering the safety of an aircraft in the way he organised the trip.