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The extent of concerns that pilot David Ibbotson had over the safety of the plane that was used to fly footballer Emiliano Sala to Wales have been revealed.
Prior to the fateful flight, in January 2019, Mr Ibbotson was recorded telling a friend that the Piper Malibu was "dodgy" and that he had heard a "bang" while flying it across the Channel on his way to France.
Pictured: The Piper Malibu light aircraft which David Ibbotson and Emiliano Sala lost their lives in.
The light aircraft left Nantes for Cardiff on January 21. The plane disappeared off Radar just under an hour after leaving France, and was never seen again. Guernsey's emergency services, including the island's lifeboat and Channel Islands Air Search, spent a week looking for the plane and the two men before the official search was called off.
One week later, the plane's fuselage was found on the sea bed between Guernsey and Alderney, after a privately funded search. Mr Sala's body was recovered from the wreckage.
Mr Ibbotson's body has never been found.
Pictured: The plane's wreckage was found during a privately funded search by David Mearns, a marine expert.
Now, the BBC has released audio of Mr Ibbotson, believed to have been recorded without him being aware, where he said the plane needed its brakes looking at.
The BBC report quotes Mr Ibbotson as saying: "I'm flying along and then 'boom'. I thought, 'what's wrong?' So I put everything forward and checked my parameters, everything was good and it was still flying, but it got your attention."
He added: "That Malibu, occasionally you've got like a mist every so often. You can feel it, very, very low throughout the airframe."
This new information has been released as part of the podcast series The Emiliano Sala Story, produced by Kayley Thomas, which can be heard here
In the audio, exclusively obtained by the BBC and released as part of its podcast series, The Emiliano Sala Story, Mr Ibbotson tells his friend that he has been booked to carry a footballer, worth "20million" from Cardiff to Nantes, and then back again.
Mr Ibbotson can be heard telling his friend that while he usually keeps his lifejacket between the plane's seats, "tomorrow I'll be wearing my lifejacket, that's for sure".
Investigations into the accident have revealed that Mr Ibbotson was not licensed to carry passengers, and the man who arranged the flight, David Henderson has been jailed for 18 months for arranging the doomed transfer.
Mr Sala was playing for Nantes prior to his death, as well as for his national side Argentina. He had been bought by Cardiff for £15m, which was a record signing for the Welsh side.
Audio of Mr Sala, telling friends via a WhatsApp group, of his concerns with the plane has previously been released.
He had said the plane "looks like it's falling apart", and "if you don't hear from me in the next hour and a half....I don't know if somebody will look for me, because they won't find me".
Pictured: Emiliano Sala played for Nantes, before being bought by Cardiff, which led to the doomed flight during which he died in January 2019.
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