Details of owners of the aircraft which crashed killing Emiliano Sala have been removed or withheld from the Federal Aviation Administration in what appears to a concerted attempt to keep their identity a secret.

Establishing the identity of the owners is a priority of the Air Accidents Investigation Branch, (AIIB) which is examining the crash.

But, as the Mail on Sunday revealed last week, the Piper Malibu has been registered in the US in the name of a British-based trustee firm, Southern Aircraft Consultancy Inc, in a way which prevents the actual owner being known.

Details of the owners of the aircraft, which was carrying Emiliano Sala, have been withheld

The 39-year-old aircraft’s listing with the US Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) states that there were no previous owners, though the Mail on Sunday is aware of at least two.

One company, whose name is known to this newspaper, has past and present directors based at three UK addresses. But two of those were empty, with all furniture removed, when we visited this week. Staff at one address – a mansion in Nottinghamshire - ordered us to leave the grounds. A woman who arrived at the door of a second immediately slammed it shut and refused to answer questions.

The ownership issue may prove vital to the question of who proves financially liable for the losses incurred by Cardiff City - who are legally bound to pay Nantes for the player who died before he had a chance to kick a ball for them.

Aircraft’s listing with US Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) states no previous owners

Though the FAA listing confirms the craft was first flown in 1984, experts have indicated that there would be no concern about an aircraft that old being in the air and that many even older still are.

But the AIIB is likely to focus on why pilot Dave Ibbotson, who died along with Sala in the crash, chose to embark on the flight from Nantes to Cardiff at night in bitterly cold conditions on January 21.

Two experienced pilots have told the Mail on Sunday that they would not have contemplated such a flight in a single-engine plane on a night on which temperatures were barely above zero. Temperatures will have dropped by 1.98 Celcius for every 1,000ft the aircraft climbed and the pilot could have encountered conditions as cold as -10C at 5,000ft.

Sala told friends in a WhatsApp message that the aircraft ‘seems like it is falling to pieces’

Sala told friends in a WhatsApp message that the aircraft ‘seems like it is falling to pieces’ shortly before its disappearance and one pilot said that what he may have heard was ice falling from the wing. The craft took off at 7.15pm and disappeared off the radar at 8.23pm.

‘The ice accumulates in all sorts of aircraft surfaces – the propeller, the wing of the plane,’ said one pilot. ‘It completely alters the flying characteristic of the plane. You are flying in an ice cube. The only way to warm the aircraft up is descend.’

Since the flight was principally across water, the potential to seek out an airfield or bring the plane down in a field was removed.