The plane crash that killed soccer player Emiliano Sala was triggered when the pilot lost control and the plane broke up while flying too fast, an official investigation showed.

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Sala, 28, had been en route from Nantes in western France on Jan. 21, 2019, to make his debut for Premier League team Cardiff City when the small aircraft in which he was travelling disappeared over the English Channel.

"The pilot lost control of the aircraft during a manually flown turn," the Air Accidents Investigation Branch report said. "The aircraft subsequently suffered an in-flight break-up while manoeuvring at an airspeed significantly in excess of its design manoeuvring speed."

The report added: "The pilot was probably affected by carbon monoxide [CO] poisoning."