He said that if he had not allowed Sala to return to his old club, Nantes, to say goodbye to his former teammates and put his beloved dog Nala in kennels 'he would still be with us'.
Cardiff had originally proposed funding a commercial flight for Sala but the McKay family instead funded a private plane. 'When you spend €17m on a footballer, you don't put him on an EasyJet flight,' McKay said.
Mr McKay helped negotiate Sala's £15million transfer to Premiership club Cardiff, and then heard that Sala wanted to spend a day in Nantes seeing club officials and former teammates and his dog Nala.
Cardiff offered him a commercial flight for the trip, but Mr McKay offered him a private plane 'for free'.
Mr Ibboston, who was known to have financial problems, is said to have told Mr Henderson that he had lost his credit card.
This led to Mr Henderson having to pay for Mr Ibbotson's hotel in France, and for the flight itself.
Mr Henderson's details were accordingly given to officials at Nantes-Atlantique airport, leading to initial fears that he had been piloting the doomed flight.
'Since it was Henderson's bank card, everyone thought he was on the plane,' said Mr McKay.
He confirmed he was commissioned by Waldemar Kita - the president of Nantes FC - to find an English club for Emiliano Sala.
The Welsh club showed interest, and after discussions, an agreement was reached in mid-January for a record Cardiff transfer of £15million.
It was Mr Ibbotson who took control of the plane, and aborted three attempted take offs in terrible weather.
An hour into the flight, Mr Ibbotson told air traffic control he was reducing altitude from 5,000 to 2,300 feet over the Channel Islands.
It later emerged Cardiff's record signing had expressed fears for his life in messages sent to close friends.
In a WhatsApp voice note, he said in Spanish: 'I'm on a plane that looks like it's going to fall apart.'
Aviation experts said the chartered single-engine aircraft should not have been risking the flight in icy conditions.
A piece of debris washed ashore in Holland overnight is not part of the plane which crashed with Emiliano Sala on board, the Daily Mail reported today.
