A body can be seen in the wreckage of the plane that was carrying footballer Emiliano Sala, investigators say.

Video footage taken by a remotely operated underwater vehicle (ROV) confirmed the wreckage found yesterday off Guernsey's coast was the Piper Malibu aircraft.

It disappeared from radar on 21 January with the newly signed Cardiff City footballer, 28, and pilot David Ibbotson, 59, onboard as they flew from Nantes to Wales.

On the rear left side of the fuselage the aircraft's registration number - N264DB - can be seen in the ROV footage.

David Mearns was hired by Emiliano Sala's family to find the missing footballer's plane.

"Tragically, in video footage from the ROV, one occupant is visible amidst the wreckage, a statement from the UK Air Accidents Investigation Bureau (AAIB) said.


"The AAIB is now considering the next steps, in consultation with the families of the pilot and passenger, and the police."

Image: The two boats searched an area off the Guernsey coast where Emiliano Sala's plane vanished from radar. Pic: AAIB

The aircraft was discovered on Sunday morning by a private crowdfunded team from Blue Water Recoveries led by director and "Shipwreck Hunter" David Mearns.

Their ship, the Morven, identified an object of interest on the seabed almost in the middle of a narrowed down search area shared with the AAIB's vessel, the Geo Ocean III, which then used its ROV to survey the area in more detail.

Image: The AAIB boat in the background and the private search boat in the foreground

Image: The plane Emiliano Sala was in, pictured in 2016. File pic: James

Mr Mearns told Sky News the wreckage was largely in one piece when they found it resting 65m below the sea.

He is confident the wreckage will be recovered which he said is important for the family to be able to mourn and grieve.

Sala's family thanked the rescue teams that located the wreckage within two hours of starting their underwater search on Sunday morning.

Image: David Mearns worked with Emiliano Sala's family to launch a private search for the plane he went missing in

Mr Mearns told Sky News: "It was sticking high off the seabed it wasn't buried or anything like that...then we scanned it seven times from different angles.

"They were able to read the registration numbers on the side of the plane.

"The bulk of the plane was on the seabed and very few things were missing.

"It has crashed, it is broken but it is all there, it is not like it is fragmented, it is not like it is in hundreds of pieces."

After hearing that the plane had been found, the Argentinian footballer's father Horacio told Argentinian media: "I cannot believe it. This is a dream. A bad dream. I am desperate."

The official search was called off after three unsuccessful days, which is when Sala's family launched a crowdfunding campaign to pay for the private search led by Mr Mearns.

Despite finding the wreckage so quickly on Sunday Mr Mearns said any criticism of the initial search and rescue operation led by teams based in the Channel Islands was unfair.

Image: Two cushions from the plane were found on a beach in Normandy last week

He said: "That was a search and rescue for survivors, we were essentially doing a search recovery for a crashed plane - there is a fundamental difference.

"They are searching the surface of the water, we are underwater....we are looking for stuff that is already down on the seabed - as it happens there was probably very little floating debris."

"They cannot be faulted, people are misunderstanding that situation, they had to make a judgement call as to whether there were any survivors, in the end that judgement call was correct, there are no survivors to that crash."

A team from the Air Accident Investigation Board (AAIB) remain in the search zone which is 24 miles north of Guernsey above the wreckage and will coordinate recovery as soon as is possible.