Privately-funded search for Emiliano Sala plane starts
Emiliano Sala
The marine scientist David Mearns, who is leading the private search for Emiliano Sala's plane by using underwater technology to scan the seabed, outlined the difficulties his team face at a news conference in Guernsey on Monday (January 28).
Argentine striker Sala, who had just joined Cardiff City from Nantes, has been missing since the plane he was travelling in disappeared over the Channel last Monday (January 21).
A three-day search for the forward and pilot David Ibbotson ended last Thursday (January 24) after rescuers said there was little chance anyone aboard the single-engine aircraft had survived.
The private search, which is being paid for by fundraisers, involves fishing boats and a survey vessel equipped with state-of-the-art search equipment which will be used to conduct an underwater search.
"This is a relatively small search area... but there are complications in terms of it being a small plane, the bottom (of the sea) is very hard, there is lots of other wreckage out there, and we have the weather," said Mearns.
"We are working in the worst time. If this was the summertime our confidence level would be much higher, almost to the point of a guarantee."
Earlier in the day, members of the Sala family took a private flight to see the area where the rescuers have been searching.