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Family of Emiliano Sala launch legal action against Cardiff, Nantes over plane crash death

Emiliano Sala's family are taking legal action against Cardiff City, Nantes and a football agent following his death in a plane crash two years ago.

In total, the Sala family have named 13 defendants in their case including football agent Mark McKay, who was working on behalf of Nantes in the transfer. His father Willie McKay is also named as are the company that owned the plane, its manufacturers and those responsible for its maintenance.

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The striker was killed in a plane crash in January 2019 after signing for Cardiff from Ligue 1 side Nantes. His body was recovered in February 2019.

David Henderson is set to face trial on Oct. 18., accused of endangering the safety of an aircraft, as well as attempting to discharge a passenger without valid permission or authorisation.

Ahead of a pre-inquest review into Sala's death on Wednesday, lawyer Daniel Machover, of Hickman & Rose Solicitors, said: "The family of Emiliano Sala are asking the coroner to fix the inquest date when she reviews matters, with a date soon after the trial of David Henderson, which has been fixed for October 18 2021.

"In the meantime, in order to protect their legal rights and remedies arising from Emiliano's untimely death, the family have commenced civil proceedings in the High Court, but will seek agreement to stay those proceedings pending the outcome of the inquest.

"That makes it all the more important for the inquest date to be fixed, so everyone can plan accordingly.

"Most importantly, the family know that the inquest will provide the answers to the very many questions they have about what went wrong in January 2019 and why Emiliano's life was cut short."

In September 2019, FIFA ordered Cardiff to pay a transfer fee of £5.3 million (€6m) to Nantes for Sala.