Emiliano Sala’s doomed plane journey would’ve ‘been like flying in Antarctica in winter’ as weather was so bad
An aeronautical expert has now claimed Emiliano Sala's flight should never have left the runway
WEATHER conditions during Emiliano Sala’s doomed flight were so risky it was like “flying in Antarctica in winter”.
The Argentine footballer , 28, is feared dead after his small private plane went off the radar over the English Channel on Monday night.
Sala was travelling to Wales from Nantes, western France, after making a club-record £15million transfer to Cardiff City, last week.
He was making the relatively short journey with just one other person in a Piper PA-46 plane – but an aeronautical expert has now claimed the flight should never have left the runway.
Commander Jorge Polanco told Argentinian network : "The Piper Malibu is an excellent single-engine aircraft , which has the capacity for seven people, but I am very surprised that they have been doing this operation flying at night, with what is the European winter at the moment."
He added: "It's like flying in Antarctica in the winter with an airplane of that size, which can suffer from what is called icing, thus stopping the engine and I think something related to that has happened."
It's like flying in Antarctica in the winter with an airplane of that size
Commander Jorge Polanco
Sala is understood to have sent panicked WhatsApp voice messages to his pals as conditions rapidly worsened while he was in the air, Argentinian newspaper Ole reported.
He wrote: “Boys, I'm here on top of the plane that looks like it's about to fall apart. And I'm going to Cardiff, crazy, tomorrow we already started. In the afternoon we started to train, boys, in my new team.”
He later said: “If you do not have any more news from in an hour and a half, I don’t know if they need to send someone to find me... I am getting scared!”
The footballer’s dad confirmed that his son could be heard in the recording.
Sala, who is from Argentina, had sent a similar message to former Nantes teammate Nicolas Pallois, L’Équipe reported.
He is understood to have "feared for his safety on the bumpy return journey back to the UK".
Sala also text his friends to say the plane was making "weird noises".
The plane had been flying at 5,000ft but requested to land while passing Guernsey.
It was last detected at 2,300ft when they lost contact with Jersey air traffic controllers just off Alderney at 8.30pm on Monday.
It came as sources told The Sun that his plane only managed to take off after up to four attempts.
RACE AGAINST TIME
Coastguard helicopters and lifeboats scoured 1,100 square miles of sea before stopping the search at nightfall on Tuesday.
Rescuers are facing a race against time as their search enters its second day - and have now revealed there is a number of possibilities they are investigating.
Guernsey Police tweeted this morning: "We are searching based on four possibilities.
"They have landed elsewhere but not made contact. They landed on water, have been picked up by a passing ship but not made contact.
"They landed on water and made it into the life raft we know was on board. The aircraft broke up on contact with the water, leaving them in the sea.
"Our search area is prioritised on the life raft option."
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Two planes took off this morning to search a "targeted area" where there is the "highest likelihood" of finding anything based on a review of tides and the weather.
Coastal areas around Alderney and off-lying rocks and islands will also be searched from the air, police said.
But as of this afternoon cops said the search for the footballer and his pilot had now become a recovery mission, not a rescue attempt.
While the American-made Piper-P46 Malibu generally has a good safety record, there have been instances of such planes crashing in bad weather.
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