A British court concluded on Thursday that Argentine footballer Emiliano Sala died in the crash of his plane in the English Channel in early 2019, probably unconscious after being poisoned by carbon monoxide.
The plane on board which salas were traveling and the pilot broke down in La Mancha on 21 January 2019, under adverse weather conditions, when the 28-year-old FC Nantes striker was on his way to Cardiff, where he had just signed for 17 million euros (about 19 million dollars) with the local club.
The player's body, whose disappearance shocked the football world, was found in the wreckage of the apparatus more than two weeks after the accident, 67 meters deep.
The one about the pilot, 59 years old, was not found.
David Henderson, 67, organizer of the flight, was sentenced last November to 18 months in prison for having hired a pilot he knew of his lack of qualification and for transporting a passenger without valid authorization.
At the same time as this criminal proceedings, an investigation process was opened, as established by the British judicial system, aimed at clarifying the causes of the football player's death.
After five weeks of hearing, the jury meeting in a court in Dorset (southern England) validated that the footballer died of head and chest injuries, but that he was probably deeply unconscious because he had breathed toxic levels of carbon monoxide from the plane's defective exhaust system.
The plane crashed into the sea at a speed of 270 miles per hour (435 km/h), leaving no chance of survival.
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