London (AFP)
British investigators plan to report by "late March" on the crash of the plane carrying the Argentinian footballer Emiliano Sala, who died in the accident a year ago, they announced on Tuesday.
"Our investigation is now at an advanced stage and we intend to publish our final report by the end of March 2020," the British accident investigation office (AAIB) said in a statement.
The small private plane carrying Emiliano Sala and his pilot, David Ibbotson, crashed in the English Channel on January 21, 2019 as the FC Nantes striker joined the Cardiff club where he had just been transferred.
The body of the 28-year-old footballer, whose disappearance had moved the world of football, was found in the carcass of the apparatus, more than two weeks after the accident, at 67 meters deep. The 59-year-old pilot's body was not found.
According to the autopsy, Emiliano Sala died of "injuries to the head and trunk".
The sportsman was also exposed - like the pilot probably - to a "potentially fatal" level of carbon monoxide likely to cause convulsions, loss of consciousness or heart attack, before the plane crash, had announced in August AAIB investigators.
© 2020 AFP