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WorldEmiliano Sala: Search for footballer and pilot called off

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Emiliano Sala: Search for footballer and pilot called off

The search for missing footballer Emiliano Sala and pilot David Ibbotson has been called off after rescuers failed to find their plane.

Cardiff City’s Argentine striker, 28, and Mr Ibbotson, from Crowle, Lincolnshire, were on the aircraft that disappeared from radar on Monday.

After three days of scouring the English Channel, authorities made the decision to abandon the search.

Read: Search for missing Cardiff City player Emiliano Sala and pilot resumes

But Sala’s sister Romina pleaded with rescuers to keep looking for him.

Guernsey Police tweeted at 15:15 GMT to say rescuers were “no longer actively searching” for the plane.

Harbourmaster Capt David Barker said the chances of survival were “extremely remote”.

“We reviewed all the information available to us, as well as knowing what emergency equipment was on board, and have taken the difficult decision to end the search,” he added.

Read: Emiliano Sala: Fears Cardiff player on missing plane

Sala became Cardiff City’s record signing on Saturday, joining from Ligue 1 club Nantes for a fee of £15m.

He had returned to the French city to say a final farewell to his former teammates before taking the plane back to the Welsh capital.

The single-engine plane carrying Sala and Mr Ibbotson left Nantes, north-west France, at 19:15 on Monday and had been flying at 5,000ft (1,500m) over the Channel Islands when it disappeared off radar near the Casquets lighthouse, near to Alderney.

It lost contact while at 2,300ft (700m) and disappeared off radar near the Casquets lighthouse, infamous among mariners as the site of many shipwrecks, eight miles (13km) north-west of Alderney.

Sala reportedly sent a WhatsApp voice message before the flight. Sounding conversational and jokey, he said he was “so scared” and: “I’m on a plane that seems like it is breaking apart.”

Rescue crews have searched about 1,700 square miles of land and sea in the Channel Islands in the past three days, covering Burhou, the Casquets, Alderney, the north coast of the Cherbourg Peninsula, north coast of Jersey and Sark.

Source: bbc

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