Emiliano Sala: Cardiff striker feared dead as authorities postpone searches for missing aircraft
Guernsey Police confirmed that French and British maritime authorities called off their rescue attempts at sunset on Tuesday after searching more than 11,500sq miles of water
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Your support makes all the difference.Cardiff City’s club-record signing Emiliano Sala is feared dead after the plane he was travelling in to Wales went missing over the English Channel on Monday night, with searches to locate the striker and the aircraft’s pilot called off on Tuesday evening.
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.
“During the course of the 15-hour search, which used multiple air and sea assets from the Channel Islands, UK and France, a number of floating objects have been seen in the water," police said. "We have been unable to confirm whether any of these are from the missing aircraft.
“We have found no signs of those on board. If they did land on the water, the chances of survival are at this stage, unfortunately, slim. Two planes and a lifeboat are still searching.”
Hopes that Sala and the pilot would be found safe quickly faded on Tuesday due to the dangerously cold temperatures that they would have experienced upon a crash-landing in the water. The chief executive of the Channel Islands Air Search, John Fitzgerald, suggested that the search was no longer a rescue mission.
“We are not expecting anyone to be alive,” he said. “I don’t think the coastguard are either. We just don’t know how it disappeared.”
Fitzgerald said that the plane “just completely vanished. There was no radio conversation.”
Cardiff cancelled their planned training session on Tuesday morning and chief executive Ken Choo visited the Cardiff City Stadium as well as the club’s training ground to support staff who were experiencing an “emotional crisis”, having signed Sala in a club-record £15m deal just last Saturday from French Ligue 1 side Nantes.
“We were very shocked upon hearing the news that the plane had gone missing,” Choo said in a statement. “We expected Emiliano to arrive [Monday] night into Cardiff and today was due to be his first day with the team.
“Our owner, Tan Sri Vincent Tan, and chairman, Mehmet Dalman, are all very distressed about the situation.
“We made the decision first thing this morning to call off training with the thoughts of the squad, management staff and the entire Club with Emiliano and the pilot.
“All of us at Cardiff City FC would like to thank our fans, and the entire footballing family for their support at this difficult time. We continue to pray for positive news.”
Authorities will resume their search on Wednesday morning at sunrise, but the prospect of any good news emerging continues to decrease with each hour that passes.
Upon failing to find any evidence of a plane wreck in the water, British authorities contacted all known airstrips in the south of the UK, but received no confirmation of an unexpected landing.
A vigil was held at 6:30pm in the centre of Nantes on Tuesday night that saw Sala’s former teammates join fans and residents in paying their respects to the striker, while the club confirmed that their French Cup clash against Entente Sannois, due to take place on Wednesday night, has been postponed until Sunday.
A statement from Sannois’ official website read: “Sannois wish all the best to Nantes and to the family of Emiliano Sala at this challenging time. The club is also thinking of all the people on board the plane.”
Sala, a native of Santa Fe in Argentina, played at youth level for Club Proyecto Crecer in his home country before being snapped up by French club Bordeaux in 2010.
He was then sent out on a series of loans to Orleans, Niort and Caen and after failing to make more than a handful of appearances for Bordeaux, Sala joined Nantes in 2015.
It was in Brittany that his career began to flourish. Sala’s hat-trick against Toulouse in October 2018 was the first by any Nantes player in Ligue 1 since 2006.
Cardiff signed Sala last week and he travelled to Wales aboard the same aircraft that he used when it went missing on Monday. He was returning to France to say goodbye to his Nantes teammates as he prepared to move to the Premier League. His £15m transfer broke Cardiff’s previous record of £11m paid for Chile international Gary Medel in 2013.
By Tuesday afternoon, fans had started to lay tributes, flowers and scarves in his honour of the footballer outside the Cardiff City Stadium.
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