Sea search for Sala to start today
A PRIVATELY-funded search for the small plane that was carrying missing Cardiff City footballer Emiliano Sala was set to begin today.
The Argentinian striker, 28, and pilot David Ibbotson, 59, of Lincolnshire, have been missing since the Piper Malibu vanished over the Channel on January 21.
Marine scientist David Mearns said he would be leading a team of seven on the vessel Morven “in close co-ordination” with the Air Accidents Investigation Branch. Speaking yesterday, the director of Blue Water Recoveries said: “Tomorrow the weather will be good. We will be able to operate.”
The plane disappeared after leaving Nantes in France for Cardiff, where Sala was due to start training after signing to the club for a record £15million.
Sala’s photo stared out of a memorial programme at Cardiff’s game against Bournemouth yesterday.
An official search operation for the footballer was called off on January 24, after Guernsey harbour master Captain David Barker said the chances of survival after such a long period are “extremely remote”.
Mr Mearns, who claims to have located 24 shipwrecks, is carrying out his search on behalf of the Sala family. He said there would be two vessels, including one commissioned by the air investigators, north of Guernsey. He said the investigators have a “high confidence level” the plane could be in that zone.
Two seat cushions, which are likely to have come from the plane, were found earlier this week on a beach near Surtainville in Normandy, France.
‘If the weather is good we will be able to operate’