Cardiff City striker Emiliano Sala has been confirmed missing, presumed dead aged 28, after the plane he was travelling in went missing off Alderney in the Channel Islands.
The 28-year-old Argentine striker was on board the aircraft – the Piper Malibu – which disappeared near the Casquets lighthouse on Monday night (January 21).
The plane was making its way from Nantes, western France, to Cardiff, Wales. Search and rescue efforts were made to find the passengers, but proved unsuccessful.
This afternoon (January 24), police confirmed the search had been called off, with Harbour Master David Barker stating ‘the chances of survival are extremely remote’ and the next of kin of those involved have been informed.
3.15pm Update.
Please read the attached statement.
Unless there is a significant development, there will be no further updates pic.twitter.com/jbEIFMB3zi
— Guernsey Police (@GuernseyPolice) January 24, 2019
Guernsey Police’s tweet said, ‘Unless there is a significant development, there will be no further updates’.
1/2
9.30am
We are searching based on four possibilities:
1. They have landed elsewhere but not made contact.
2. They landed on water, have been picked up by a passing ship but not made contact
3. They landed on water and made it into the life raft we know was on board— Guernsey Police (@GuernseyPolice) January 23, 2019
On Wednesday (January 23), it was revealed there were four options which the search was being based on, including the idea they’d landed and not made contact, as well as the opinion they may have landed on water and made it into the life raft which was on board.
Guernsey Police confirmed that French and British maritime authorities had called off their rescue attempts at sunset after searching more than 11,500sq miles of water around the Channel Islands of Alderney and Guernsey.
The Piper PA-46 Malibu single-propeller aircraft disappeared off radar around 8:20pm on Monday night, with Jersey Air Traffic Control sending an alert to Guernsey Coastguard who immediately dispatched a lifeboat. Since then, police said there had been no sign of either Argentine footballer Sala or the aircraft’s pilot, who the French civil aviation authority confirmed were the only two people on board.
16.55 update
Harbour Master Captain David Barker says: “I can confirm the name of the pilot is David Ibbotson.”
— Guernsey Police (@GuernseyPolice) January 23, 2019
Speaking to French publication SO FOOT, he said [translated]:
I really do not understand how an airplane could have disappeared from radar. There must have been a technical or mechanical problem.
The plane in which they had embarked, a Piper PA-46 Malibu, is a very good plane, but it must have happened something catastrophic, there is no reason for this plane to have encountered a problem.
Emiliano Sala
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