‘I think it’s imperative that the plane is recovered,’ says man who led private search

The family of the footballer Emiliano Sala are desperate for the plane he was travelling in to be recovered from the seabed after it emerged that a body had been spotted in the wreckage.

The Air Accident Investigation Branch (AAIB) has not said if it believes the body is that of Argentinian striker or the pilot, David Ibbotson, and are consulting both men’s families and the police before deciding whether to try to raise the plane.

Air accident investigators are planning their next steps after the plane was found in 63 metres of water north of the Channel island of Guernsey.

Experts have said that they believe it will be possible to lift the aircraft though any operation is likely to be hampered by rough seas and poor weather.

Marine scientist and shipwreck hunter David Mearns, who led a private search for the plane backed by Sala’s family and thousands of people who donated money in a crowdfunding exercise, said he remained in close contact with the player’s relatives.

He said: “We are informing them every step of the way what’s going on and they are making it clear to us what their priorities are at all times. There’s a much greater chance they will get answers if [the plane is] recovered.”

The plane was found on Sunday within hours of the start of the search, which involved the UK government’s AAIB working alongside Mearns’s team.

It is now up to the AAIB to decide the next step but Mearns added: “I think it’s imperative that the plane is recovered, and even more so now we know someone is down there.”

He said a salvage vessel equipped for working in the North Sea and a properly equipped dive support vessel would be able to lift the plane within a matter of days.

When asked if the body would be recovered before the wreck itself, he said: “That’s down to the AAIB and their operational people about how they do that. The body will be the most sensitive of objects that they are picking up so they will be very careful about that.”

Mearns also said the operation would need to be carried out in “slack water” – the point at which the tide is turning.

Play Video 0:59 Wreckage of missing plane carrying Cardiff City's Emiliano Sala found, says search leader - video

The Argentinian government thanked the UK for locating the plane and called on the British authorities to continue their efforts to find the cause of the accident. Sala’s father, Horacio, spoke of his anguish at the discovery, telling a television channel in Argentina: “I cannot believe it. This is a dream. A bad dream.”

Until the plane was discovered, Sala’s family were still holding out hope that he could have survived.

But their worst fears were realised after two vessels began a search of the seabed at the last known location of the plane on Sunday morning. The AAIB commissioned a vessel called Geo Ocean III while Mearns’s team used a boat called FPV Morven.

Emiliano Sala: missing Premier League footballer’s plane found Read more

The AAIB said: “Early in the search, the Morven identified an object of interest on the seabed using its side-scan sonar equipment. It cleared the immediate area for the Geo Ocean III to use its underwater remotely operated vehicle (ROV) to survey the area of the seabed in which the object was located.

“Based on analysis of ROV video footage, the AAIB investigators onboard the vessel concluded that the object is wreckage from the missing Piper Malibu aircraft. Tragically, in video footage from the ROV, one occupant is visible amidst the wreckage. The AAIB is now considering the next steps, in consultation with the families of the pilot and passenger, and the police.”

The searchers were surprised the plane was so intact. Ross Taylor of A-2-Sea Solutions, which provided the FPV Morven, said: “In terms of the search, you have set lines of the seabed and they are set up at a distance depending on the resolution you want to achieve.”

He compared the search process to mowing a lawn, and said the wreck was found using a combination of sonar equipment, including one device towed about five metres from the seabed.

The plane had been taking Sala to Cardiff from Nantes in France on 21 January, shortly after the 28-year-old signed for the Premiership club Cardiff City.

Ibbotson, the 59-year-old pilot, had requested to descend before losing contact with Jersey air traffic control.