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The inquest into the death of footballer Emiliano Sala started yesterday more than three years after the plane crash near Alderney which killed him and his pilot.
Mr Sala was travelling from Nantes to Cardiff to complete a £15million transfer to the Welsh club when the single engine Piper Malibu aircraft carrying him and pilot David Ibbotson hit bad weather and crashed 22 miles north of Guernsey on the night of 21 January 2019.
Last year, a court case heard that Mr Ibbotson did not hold a commercial pilot's licence, was not allowed to fly at night and that his rating to fly the Piper Malibu had expired.
David Henderson, who organised the fatal flight and had originally intended to fly the aircraft himself, was found guilty of recklessly endangering the safety of an aircraft and sentenced to 18 months in prison.
Pictured: The results of a post-mortem found Mr Sala had died of head and trunk injuries.
A search and rescue mission by Guernsey Police did not find the wreckage and was called off after three days.
A few weeks later, a privately-funded search located the aircraft in three parts. Mr Sala’s body was recovered from the seabed 68 metres down. Mr Ibbotson's body has not been found.
The Air Accident Investigation Branch reported that the pilot, Mr Ibbotson, had lost control and the aircraft had split apart in the sky.
The inquest which opened yesterday will determine the events which led to Mr Sala's death, who was involved and in what way and how Mr Sala’s body was recovered.
It is being held in Bournemouth in front of a full jury, led by the Coroner, Rachael Griffin.
The pre-inquest review hearing began at 11:30 yesterday and is followed today by the final inquest, which could run until 17 March.
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