Emiliano Sala air crash

[dodgy-alan 1,587]

Now they have recovered the body of Sala, the next thing that seems to be happening is the press's character assassination of the pilot Dave Ibbotson.  His body has still to be recovered, however question marks are arising over the airworthiness of the aircraft and indeed his own competence on the type! He was recorded as saying to a friend on social media that he was "A Bit Rusty" on certain procedures! However until the wreckage is brought up its hard to know what happened.  Did he have an altimeter malfunction, poss caused by a frozen pitot tube, why did he descend from 5,000 ft to 2,300? Who knows? Certainly the bloody press don't! I just hope they recover not only the pilots body(who everyone seems to have forgotten) but the aircraft itself to ascertain what caused the tragedy.  Either way it's a sad time for the football fraternity and whatever is deemed the fault, two people have lost their lives in the accident. May they both rest in peace and may their families find closure.  

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-wales-47172509

[Tim_A 997]

Did the pilot hold an instrument rating? If not, he would have to descend to avoid the low level class A airway between the Channel Isles and UK. A requested descent to 2300 certainly fits with that. Another possibility is airframe icing (given the time of year). But until the AAIB issues a preliminary report, anything is just speculation.

[dodgy-alan 1,587]

The thing is Sala was offered a commercial flight which would have been a lot safer but apparently he turned it down and arranged this flight privately! He then sent a tweet saying that he was in a rattly old aircraft! He could quite easily have declined to take the trip if he felt uneasy. It's all rather odd.

[hlminx 301]

3 hours ago, Tim_A said:

Did the pilot hold an instrument rating? 

I'd hope so.. it was dark. They didn't take off till 19:15z even though the flight was supposed to have left in the morning.