Dave Ibbotson had US licence and may have used expenses loophole to take paying passengers

The pilot who flew the plane carrying Emiliano Sala used a loophole to allow him to take paying passengers, it has emerged, as friends expressed shock that he decided to fly across the Channel at night.

On Friday, Sala’s relatives were investigating the possibility of launching a privately funded search after the authorities in Guernsey halted their hunt for the missing footballer, the pilot Dave Ibbotson and his plane.

Sala’s parents were understood to be flying to the UK to join his sister, Romina, in Cardiff. Her call for the Guernsey harbourmaster, Capt David Barker, to resume the search was backed by several footballers including Sala’s fellow Argentinians Lionel Messi, Diego Maradona and Sergio Agüero.

Argentina’s president, Mauricio Macri, has also spoken out over the issue. In a statement on Friday, the president’s office said he had instructed the foreign minister, Jorge Faurie, to make a formal request to both France and the UK to resume the search.

A petition launched in France – where Sala played for Nantes until his transfer to Cardiff City this month – and signed by more than 50,000 people also called for the search to restart, and a demonstration was held in Sala’s home town of Progreso.

Since the plane disappeared, it has emerged that Ibbotson, 59, of Crowle, Lincolnshire, held a private pilot’s licence with the Federal Aviation Authority in the US.

The UK’s Civil Aviation Authority said the aircraft was registered in the US and so fell under American regulations. US law states that private pilots cannot make a profit by carrying passengers. The nature of the arrangement between Ibbotson and Sala is unclear.

Ibbotson is understood to have been using a loophole that allowed him to fly passengers between airports as long as he did not profit from any journey. He could claim “reasonable expenses” for fuel and other outgoings. This is perfectly legal. He was also a registered pilot with the British Parachute Association (BPA) and would not have required a commercial licence if he was flying as a volunteer.

Ian Marshall, who sat with Ibbotson on the BPA council, told the Guardian this was common practice among private pilots. The loophole has led to the rise of websites similar to Uber that connect passengers with pilots, considerably reducing the price of private flights. The most popular of these sites is Wingly.

Marshall said: “Most of the pilots who have these private licences are semi-commercial. You’re not meant to fly for any financial reward, but that’s not to say you can’t fly for reasonable expenses. That’s how many of them get around it.”

He said many pilots chose to obtain a licence from the FAA in the US as the process was said to be less stringent than that in the UK.

The UK Air Accident Investigation Branch has confirmed that it will look at all operational aspects of the flight, including licensing and whether it was a private or commercial operation.

Marshall added: “I am quite surprised that he decided to fly from Nantes to Cardiff in that plane at night. I thought there were restrictions in place that would have meant he couldn’t fly. There are lots of unanswered questions.”

Facebook Twitter Pinterest Emiliano Sala’s sister Romina Sala (second left) and her cousin Maria Sottini look at tributes to the footballer outside Cardiff City’s stadium. Photograph: Adam Hale/PA

It is understood that part of the investigation will look into whether Ibbotson had the instrument qualifications to fly “blind at night” and in bad weather, and whether he was properly insured.

At the weekend Ibbotson sent a message via social media to a friend suggesting he was “a bit rusty with the ILS” – the instrument landing system. There have been reports that he made more than one attempt to take off on the fateful flight and that the plane was turning back towards northern France when it vanished.

On Thursday the Guernsey harbourmaster, Capt David Barker, said rescuers would no longer actively look for the missing pair, whose plane vanished from radar screens on Monday, because they believed their chances of survival were “extremely remote”.

However, Sala’s sister pleaded for the search to continue. Speaking at the Cardiff City stadium on Friday, she said: “We really are thankful for the support of all the players in the way they have said that we should not stop our efforts. We will find a way to restart the search. We will find Emiliano and the pilot. He is a fighter and we feel he is still out there.”

The plane left Nantes for Cardiff at 7.15pm on Monday. After the pilot asked for permission to descend, the plane lost contact with Jersey air traffic control. Barker acknowledged on Thursday that Sala’s family were unhappy with the decision to stop searching, but said he was “absolutely confident” that no more could be done.

He said rescue teams had scanned about 1,700 sq miles and examined mobile phone data and satellite imagery and had found no trace of the plane. He said he was not surprised by the outcome because the waters were in flood tide, with up to 12 knots of current running through the area, meaning the search zone had grown by the hour.

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Barker said it was suspected that the final position of the plane was close to Hurd’s Deep, an underwater valley used as a dumping ground for radioactive waste, but it was not possible to say if this was where the plane ended up.

Although the active search had ended, he said, ships and planes were still being asked to look out for any signs of the men or their plane. A missing persons investigation remains live.

The lifeboat charity the RNLI said its volunteers “gave their utmost” in challenging conditions during the three-day search. Channel Island rescue workers faced “rough seas, heavy hail showers and squalls” on shifts lasting 10 hours or more.

Alderney Lifeboat Station’s deputy second coxswain, Mark Gaudion, said there was always “an overwhelming desire to have a positive outcome” among rescue workers. Every search was “treated equally, with compassion and determination to locate those missing”.

• This article was amended on 26 January 2019 to remove an incorrect reference to the number of flying hours needed to obtain the private pilot’s licence held by Ibbotson.