Emiliano Sala’s pilot had £27,000 debt and was ordered to pay back £4,431 days before the tragedy

THE pilot who died with Cardiff City star Emiliano Sala had been told to pay a £4,413 debt ten days before the tragedy.

The county court order was the fifth against David Ibbotson, who already faced bailiffs over £23,000 bills.

The last ruling, made at Grimsby on January 11, doesn’t name the creditor.

His perilous finances were laid bare in four other county court judgements made against him in Northampton.

Earlier orders made show he defaulted on a £13,600 Barclaycard bill that had been passed over to a no-nonsense collection agency after he defaulted on credit card payments.

He also owed £4,345 to Bank of Scotland and smaller sums to Yorkshire Water.

In 2015 a court order for £267 was handed over to credit chasers over missed Orange phone contract payments.

All remain outstanding, the paperwork confirms.

The dad of four, 59, of Crowle, Lincs, had been touting for flying jobs on Facebook.

Pals said he worked as a heating engineer and DJ, and flew parachutists “but wouldn’t have made much from the drops.

"Pilots at parachute training organisations usually give their time voluntarily and don’t usually make money.

“If he was transporting professional footballers then obviously there was more money to be made.”

His body has yet to be recovered from the Channel. Divers retrieved that of £15million ace Sala.

Questions remain over how he came to fly the Piper Malibu aircraft, which was made in 1984 and had flown 6,636 hours.

An interim report confirmed that he did not have a commercial licence to fly.

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