TheCable

Horacio Sala, father of Emiliano Sala, late Cardiff City striker, has died of heart attack three months after his son was killed in a plane crash.

The 58-year-old-man died at his home in Progreso, a small town situated 250 miles north-west of Argentina’s capital, local media reported on Friday.

According to Julio Muller, a local politician of the town, who confirmed his death, Horacio was grief-stricken ever since and “could never get over his son’s death.”

“2019 doesn’t let up in shocking us with news in this town. At five o’clock in the morning, the lady, his wife, rang me and she was very upset,” Muller told La Red, a radio station in the town.

“The doctors were there but when I arrived at their home, he had already died. He could never get over Emi’s death.”

“When the body was found he thought the case would be closed – but all the news that came to light about the pilot was very difficult.”

The football player was aboard Malibu-Piper aircraft from Nantes to Cardiff in January when his plane crash-landed.

He died along with David Ibbotson, the plane’s pilot, when the aircraft they were travelling in came down in the English channel on January 21, two days after Cardiff had made him their record signing.

While his body was pulled from the wreckage on February 7, that of Ibbotson was never found.