EMILIANO SALA and his pilot David Ibbotson were exposed to harmful levels of the deadly gas carbon monoxide prior to their plane crashing last January.
Both were killed when the Piper Malibu aircraft carrying them from Nantes to Cardiff came down in the English Channel on the night of January 21.
The same aircraft and pilot had flown Sala to Nantes two days earlier.
Two days after the crash, Channel Islands Air Search reported that there was "no hope" of finding any survivors in the water.
In an audio message sent from the plane via WhatsApp, which surfaced in the aftermath of the crash, Sala told friends the plane was “falling to pieces” and he was “scared”.
Sala’s body was recovered from the wreckage of the plane on February 7, with a post-mortem indicating he died from "head and trunk injuries".
Sala, 28, and Ibbotson, 59, went missing on January 21 (Image: Twitter)Ibbotson’s body was never recovered.
Now a report from the Air Accident Investigation Bureau has revealed that prior to the crash the cockpit had filled with carbon monoxide.
Dorset police arrested an unnamed man on suspicion of manslaughter by an illegal act back in June. The investigation into Sala’s death is still ongoing.
Last week Sherry Bray, 48, and Christopher Ashford, 62, were told they would be facing jail time after accessing CCTV footage of the post-mortem examination which they subsequently released on social media.
