No Sign of Missing Emiliano Sala

It is with great sadness that I am writing this article as the search for Emiliano Sala after his plane went missing on Monday evening, has been postponed once again for the night.

The Argentine forward, who only a few days ago signed for Cardiff City as their record transfer has now been missing for 2 days and is sadly presumed to have died in the tragic incident.

The striker was on board a single-engine Piper Malibu on Monday night, as he was on his way to Cardiff ready to meet up with his new team-mates for training on Tuesday. When air-traffic controllers lost contact with the plane at around 20:30 GMT over the English Channel.

The search and rescue operation for both Emiliano Sala and the pilot, who has been named by police as David Ibbotson, has been ongoing for two days. However, the operation has been postponed for the night as conditions will not be suitable to search in.

Police along with those in charge of the search and rescue operation will be deciding on whether the search will continue in the morning. Although sadly at this stage, even if the search does continue, it almost certainly becomes a recovery operation rather than a rescue.

Some of the rescuers today expressed their fear that there is now “little hope” of finding the two alive. As even if they made it into the life raft that was onboard the plane, it is unlikely they could have survived for two days in the ice-cold conditions.

Tributes for the footballer have been left at the stadium of Cardiff City; where he was due to kick off a new adventure in his career, by fans who were looking forward to seeing their new star man in action. His former club Nantes have postponed this week’s game, and fans of the club have been holding vigils and praying that he was to be found safe.

The hearts of everyone at Sunday League Sports are with the family and friends of Emiliano Sala and David Ibbotson at this difficult time. While it seems unlikely at this stage, we all pray for them to be found safe.

Featured Image by Jon Candy. Displayed under Creative Commons.