Now it has emerged the 28-year-old Cardiff City striker had sent an exasperated audio message to his friend Maxilimiano Duarte back in Argentina hours before he set off on his last fateful journey.
"I cannot rest, I haven't stopped all day," Sala told his friend.
Duarte told Argentine TV news programme America Noticias he got the impression his friend did not want to board the Piper PA-46 Malibu plane on 21 January.
La der’ 📸
— FC Nantes (@FCNantes) 21 January 2019
🙌🏼 #MerciEmi pic.twitter.com/SsCcgrSZAE
"I'm here on a plane that looks like it's about to fall apart. I'm going to Cardiff, crazy, tomorrow we already start, and in the afternoon we start training, boys, in my new team," Sala reportedly said in the message.
Sala had signed for Cardiff for a club record £15m on 19 January and had flown back to Nantes to say goodbye to his team-mates.
He was due to make his debut on 29 January against Arsenal but by then had been missing for eight days.
On Monday, 4 February, an underwater video emerged showing a body in the wreckage of the plane.
The wreckage was found in the English Channel on Sunday, 3 February, two weeks after the plane disappeared.
