Sala pilot’s body may never be found as search called off
THE pilot of the doomed flight carrying Emiliano Sala will remain lost at sea after investigators said they had no plans to return to the plane wreckage.
The Air Accidents Investigations Branch (AIIB) confirmed that underwater searches in the English Channel had been suspended after the £15million footballer’s body was returned to England.
“The AAIB’S search was for aircraft wreckage, which we found and documented – we have no current plans to return to the site,” a spokesman said.
Sala’s body was taken by ship to Portland Port on Thursday where a coroner confirmed his identity.
The wreckage of the single-engine Piper Malibu N264DB was discovered on Sunday evening, having disappeared on Jan 21 as it travelled from Nantes in France to Cardiff.
The aircraft remains under water, 21 miles off the coast of Guernsey, and there has been no sign so far of Dave Ibbotson, 59. the English pilot.
Mr Ibbotson’s wife, Nora, has declined to talk at her home in Crowle, near Scunthorpe, Lincs.
However, a local businesswoman in the close-knit village has said she was “distraught with grief, not knowing”.
An unnamed relative was also reported as saying: “What’s happened is awful and all we want is for David’s body to be found so we can lay him to rest properly, as he deserves, and pay our respects. Not knowing where he is and if his body has been found or maybe never will be is the worst thing ever.”
Yesterday, Sala’s sister, Romina, led tributes to the popular player.
She posted a picture of her brother on Instagram showing him with his arms spread and looking up to the sky while standing at the home of his former club FC Nantes. “Your soul in my soul it will shine forever thus illuminating the time of my existence. I love you, tito,” she wrote beneath it.
FC Nantes announced it would retire the No 9 shirt in honour of their former striker, while his new club, Cardiff City, confirmed it would cover costs for repatriation to Argentina.
Meanwhile, a financial row threatens to boil over between the two clubs over the £15 million transfer fee.
A legal letter from Nantes was emailed to Cardiff on Tuesday – the second demand in the space of a week – to request urgent payment.