London: Footballer Emiliano Sala and the pilot flying his plane when it crashed were likely exposed to "potentially fatal" levels of carbon monoxide, investigators announced on Wednesday. "Toxicology tests found that the passenger had a high saturation level of COHb (the combination product of carbon monoxide and haemoglobin)," Britain's Air Accidents Investigation Branch (AAIB) said in a special bulletin.

"It is considered likely that the pilot would also have been exposed to carbon monoxide," it added. The Argentinian was flying to Wales from France to join Premier League club Cardiff when his plane came down in the English Channel on January 21 during a night-time flight. His body was recovered, but that of pilot David Ibbotson has never been found. Sala's family said the bulletin "raises many questions". "The family and the public need to know how the carbon monoxide was able to enter the cabin," Daniel Machover, lawyer for the Sala family, said in a statement.