Star footballer’s body was found in wreckage of plane, police confirm
THE body recovered from the wreckage of a plane that crashed into the Channel two weeks ago has now been identified as that of Emiliano Sala, the 28-year-old Cardiff City footballer.
He had been flying from Nantes to Cardiff, but the Piper aircraft piloted by David Ibbotson, 60, lost radar contact 24 nautical miles north of Guernsey, and was later found 220ft underwater.
On Tuesday night, a mission to carefully remove his body from the aircraft was launched by specially trained Ministry of Defence salvage officials, and they brought it on to their vessel, the Geo Ocean III.
In the pitch black water and using a remotely controlled submersible, the team also tried to recover the wreckage of the plane, but poor weather conditions curtailed their efforts and “the difficult decision was taken to bring the overall operation to a close”.
Last night, Dorset Police said: “The body brought to Portland Port today has been formally identified by HM Coroner for Dorset as that of professional footballer Emiliano Sala.
“The families of Mr Sala and the pilot have been updated and will continue to be supported by specially-trained family liaison officers. Our thoughts remain with them at this difficult time. HM Coroner will continue to investigate the circumstances of this death supported by Dorset Police.”
Sala had just signed for Cardiff for a club-record fee of £15million, on a contract worth around £50,000 a week when he boarded the flight.
After travelling to Nantes to say a “last goodbye” to his former teammates, as he called it on Instagram, the Argentinian striker took off for Cardiff in a 35-year-old single engine aircraft organised by Mark Mckay, a football agent.
While on the plane, and in treacherous weather, Sala sent a Whatsapp voice message to his friends, saying “he was “really scared” and the “plane seems like it is breaking apart”.
At around 8.15pm on Jan 21, the pilot asked air traffic control to reduce altitude from 5,000ft to 2,300ft.
A short time later, the aircraft disappeared from radar screens.
A four-day intensive search and rescue mission led by the Guernsey coast guard and the Channel Islands Air Search teams found no trace of the plane or its occupants.
Sala’s family launched a crowdfunding page to raise money to restart the search and received some £330,000.
The family hired David Mearns, a “shipwreck hunter”, who found the plane within two hours of searching. The status of the pilot is still not known.