The owner of the doomed aircraft where footballer Emiliano Sala was killed had 'no confidence' in pilot David Ibbotson and banned him from flying it, an inquest heard today.
Fay Keeley, who owned the Piper Malibu plane, insisted Mr Ibbotson was not to fly the light aircarft again after he had been guilty of two airspace violations in the same day.
The 59-year-old pilot accidentally infringed on restricted airspace on two occasions just months before he flew Mr Sala on the fatal flight to Cardiff in January 2019.
Ms Keely said she instructed David Henderson, who managed the aircraft, not to let him near the plane again.
But Mr Henderson defended his colleague and used 'multiple expletives' in an email reply to Ms Keely.
Mr Henderson also went behind the owner's back by letting Mr Ibbotson fly Ms Keely's sister on one journey without her knowing, it was heard.
It later emerged that Mr Ibbotson, whose body has never been recovered, was not licensed to fly the aircraft at night or to carry commercial passengers.
As a result Mr Henderson, 67, was jailed for 18 months last November for endangering the safety of an aircraft when he arranged for Mr Ibbotson to fly Mr Sala.
Ms Keely today claimed that Mr Henderson led her to believe Mr Ibbotson was properly licensed and that she had 'no knowledge' of the doomed flight which killed the star striker until after the plane dropped off the radar.
Speaking at Bournemouth Town Hall, Dorset, Ms Keely said: 'I asked that Mr Ibbotson not fly the aircraft because I wasn't confident in his capability.
'As far as I understood Mr Ibbotson was not to fly the aircraft.'
Reading the email she sent to Henderson in July 2018, she said: 'This is now two incidents (of airspace violations).
'I think it would be best that he not fly the Malibu again.
'He doesn't give me much confidence.'
She said that Mr Henderson replied with 'multiples expletives and exclamation marks' defending Ibbotson.
And a month later she learned that Ibbotson had flown her sister without her consent, she told the inquest.
She said: 'In August I found out Mr Ibbotson had flown my sister instead of him (Henderson).
'I was away for three weeks and he went ahead and used Mr Ibbotson after trying to contact me.
'I had an email saying he had tried to contact me but couldn't so he used him because otherwise the flight wouldn't have gone ahead.
'That shows that he knew I didn't want him to use Mr Ibbotson.'
In evidence, read out at the inquest, which was given by Mr Henderson at his trial in Cardiff Crown Court last October, he said: 'I recall a conversation where I said that David Ibbotson was mortified.
'He admitted that he made a mistake and it wouldn't happen again.
'I explained that it's not uncommon for a pilot of all kinds of experience to have (an airspace infringement).
'I thought I had placated her.
'I believed I had persuaded her to cut him some slack and let him fly.'
But Ms Keely said her decision 'would never have changed' and that she 'made clear' that Mr Ibbotson was not to fly the Malibu.
Mr Sala was being flown to South Wales following his £15m transfer from French club Nantes to Cardiff City FC at the time of the fatal flight on January 21, 2019.
The plane crashed into the English Channel near Guernsey.
The inquest has heard that moments before the crash Mr Sala would have been knocked out by carbon monoxide fumes that had leaked into the cabin, probably from a crack in the plane's exhaust pipe.
The hearing was told how Ms Keely bought the Piper Malibu light aircraft in August 2015 through her family's company, Cool Flourish, on Mr Henderson's advice.
She said that she handed over management of the plane to him, including its maintenance and decisions about who flew it.
The company charged £375 per hour for clients to hire the aircraft - plus extra fees for Mr Henderson.
But when asked whether she believed it was used to carry commercial passengers, Ms Keely said: 'Mr Henderson said hiring the plane was not the same as having commercial passengers because they are not paying for a seat.
'I believed he was an expert and that I was able to rely on him.'
When asked by senior coroner Rachael Griffin if she was aware that Mr Ibbotson was not qualified, she responded: 'As I understood the pilots had the commercial licence and the right experience.'
She said: 'Henderson was to make sure they (pilots) were sufficiently qualified and had the correct experience.'
Ms Keely went on to say that she had 'absolutely not been aware' of the flight which killed the 28-year-old footballer or that Mr Ibbtoson had been flying the plane.
She said: 'I didn't even know Emiliano Sala was a passenger until after the accident.'
Football agent Willie Mckay, who is due to give evidence tomorrow, commissioned the deadly flight on Mr Sala's behalf.
The Argentinian's mother, Mercedes, told the inquest last week how her son felt under pressure by both teams to complete the transfer quickly.
Yesterday (Tues) Home Office pathologist, Doctor Basil Purdue, reiterated that Mr Ibbotson would have been 'deeply unconscious or near death' before the crash after inhaling carbon monoxide which seeped into the cabin from a faulty exhaust.
He has described Mr Sala, whose blood was saturated with the lethal fumes, as the 'canary in the coal mine.'
When asked today about the maintenance of the Malibu, Ms Keely said it had undergone £20,000 worth of 'significant' repairs in January 2018 and was not flown for several months as a result.
She added that she believed it was airworthy after its last annual maintenance check in November 2018 - just two months before the crash.
The jury inquest continues.