Emiliano Sala’s mum and sister on plane tour of Channel crash site after Lionel Messi and stars fund search for missing Cardiff City striker
Loved ones of the missing Cardiff City striker went on a special flight which circled the island of Alderney after leaving Guernsey Airport today
EMILIANO Sala’s mum and sister have taken a plane tour of his English Channel crash site after Lionel Messi and a host of footie stars backed a new search fund.
Loved ones of the missing Cardiff City striker went on a special flight which circled the island of Alderney after leaving Guernsey Airport today.
The family took off in a small twin-engine Dornier 228-212 plane after more than £265K was raised to fund a new mission.
A private search comes after authorities officially called off their own hunt for Sala, 28, and his Brit pilot Dave Ibbotson on Thursday.
More than 1,700 sq-ft of land and sea had been scoured by search and rescue teams after the Argentine ace’s small private plane went missing over the Channel on January 21.
He was flying from Nantes, western France, to Cardiff after making a club-record £15million transfer to the Premier League strugglers.
Sala’s sister Romina and mum Mercedes made no comment to reports as they returned to the terminal at Guernsey Airport.
'SCENIC FLIGHT'
The pair flew in a plane operated by local airline Aurigny.
In a statement, the airline said: "Aurigny can confirm that we operated a commercial scenic flight service this morning out of Guernsey which flew to the west of Alderney and around Alderney before returning to Guernsey."
Manchester City's Ilkay Gundogan, Nantes manager Vahid Halilhodzic, Leicester City winger Demarai Gray and Bayern Munich's Corentin Tolisso have all contributed to the donation page.
It was set up by Sala's French football agency, Sport Cover, while a petition launched in France has gathered more than 80,000 signatures.
Argentine footie legends Messi and Diego Maradona are among those who have made public pleas for the search to be restarted.
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The country's president Mauricio Macri also told his foreign minister to issue formal requests to Britain and France for search efforts to be resumed, according to a statement from the premier's office on Friday.
Three planes and five helicopters racked up 80 hours combined flying time looking for the plane, working alongside two lifeboats and other passing ships.
Guernsey's harbour master explained a "difficult" decision was made to call off the mission, saying the chances of survival were "extremely remote".
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