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The private pilot who died with Emiliano Sala when his plane went down in the English Channel was ordered by a court to settle a £4,413 bill just days before he was hired to fly the Cardiff City star, it can be revealed. 

David Ibbotson, 59, from Crowle near Scunthorpe, had already been told to pay off £23,000 worth of debt before he was made the subject of a fifth court order for the additional bill on January 11 - 10 days before the tragedy. 

The revelation comes amid an investigation into how Mr Ibbotson, who had dropped out of commercial flight training, was hired to make the doomed flight. Private pilots are banned from taking payment for commercial flights.