Fans gather near a row of yellow tulips in Nantes' city center after news that newly-signed Cardiff City soccer player Emiliano Sala was missing after the light aircraft he was travelling in disappeared between France and England the previous evening, according to France's civil aviation authority, France, January 22, 2019. REUTERS/Stephane Mahe

LONDON (Reuters) - Police searching the English Channel for missing Cardiff City soccer star Emiliano Sala are prioritizing their efforts on the possibility that the plane landed on water and he made it onto a life raft that was on board, British police said on Wednesday.

Police said that three other possibilities were that Sala and the pilot had landed elsewhere but not made contact, they had been picked up by a passing ship, or the aircraft broke up on contact with water.

“Our search area is prioritized on the life raft option,” Guernsey Police said on Twitter.