Authorities confirm that the recovered body belongs to Emiliano Sala
- by Grant Boone
- in Sports
- — Feb 8, 2019
Police have confirmed that the body recovered from a plane in the English Channel is that of Argentine soccer player Emiliano Sala.
Sala, 28, had been en route from Nantes in western France on January 21 to make his debut for Cardiff City when the plane he was travelling on disappeared.
The body found in the wreckage of a plane that crashed in the English Channel was identified as missing Argentine soccer star Emiliano Sala on Thursday.
"HM Coroner will continue to investigate the circumstances of this death supported by Dorset Police".
The aircraft went missing over the Channel and was found on the seabed 60m below on Sunday evening - two weeks later - before it emerged that a body could be seen in the wreckage on Monday.
The wreckage was discovered just hours into a privately funded underwater search, with a single body visible inside.
In a statement police said: "The families of Mr Sala and the pilot David Ibbotson have been updated with this news and will continue to be supported by specially trained family liaison officers".
'The weather forecast is poor for the foreseeable future and so the hard decision was taken to bring the overall operation to a close.
Remotely operated Vehicles (ROVs) were used in tough conditions to pull the body out of the water in a "dignified" way, the Air Accidents Investigation Branch (AAIB) said. "There is a process for recovering the plane".
An official search operation was called off on 24 January after Guernsey's harbour master David Barker said the chances of survival following such a long period were "extremely remote".
Sky sources say Nantes have now started legal action against Cardiff, asking for the first payment of the transfer fee, which is understood to be more than £5m.
He was preparing to join his new club, Cardiff City, following their record-breaking £15 million acquisition from FC Nantes.
"Had that not happened, I don't think anybody would have searched for the plane", shipwreck hunter David Mearns, whose private company found the plane, told AFP.
