FINAL JOURNEY
Emiliano Sala rescuers carry body onshore after pulling it from plane wreckage
THE Emiliano Sala rescue team have been pictured carrying a body ashore after recovering it from the plane wreckage.
Pictures showed the body bag being stretchered into a silver ambulance before being transported to the coroner for official identification.
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The Air Accidents Investigation Branch (AAIB) said the families of both men had been kept informed of progress, and identification of the body was a matter for the police and coroner.
The AAIB successfully removed the body from 220ft deep last night.
Subs were used in "challenging conditions" to pull the body out of the water "in as dignified a way as possible", the team said.
Attempts to pull up the Piper Malibu wreckage were unsuccessful because of poor weather, it was revealed.
"The weather forecast is poor for the foreseeable future and so the difficult decision was taken to bring the overall operation to a close," the AAIB said.
The difficult decision was taken to bring the overall operation to a close.
AAIB spokesman
"Although it was not possible to recover the aircraft, the extensive video record captured by the ROV is expected to provide valuable evidence for our safety investigation.
"We expect our next update to be an interim report, which we intend to publish within one month of the accident occurring."
Speaking on Monday, shipwreck hunter David Mearns, who found the doomed plane, said it was "imperative" the aircraft was lifted to provide answers to the victims' families.
DOOMED FLIGHT
The plane was travelling from Nantes to Cardiff when it vanished near Alderney in the Channel on January 21.
Sala, 28, and his Brit pilot David Ibbotson, 59, were making the short flight to the Welsh capital after the Argentine striker had signed a club-record £15million transfer to the Premier League strugglers.
Rescue crews searched for 24 hours, across three days, and covered around 1,700sq. miles before calling off their hunt on January 24.
But the doomed flight was eventually located by Mr Mears' Morven search vessel after Lionel Messi and a host of footie stars backed a £300K private search.
Mr Mearns and his team used a sonar system to scan the seabed and once the wreck was detected the AAIB then sent down robotic underwater cameras from its GEO Ocean III ship.
FINAL MESSAGES
Sala had travelled back to Nantes to visit the Ligue 1 team’s training ground and say goodbye to old friends when he boarded the small plane to Cardiff.
It later emerged that Sala had expressed fears for his life during the flight in messages sent to close friends.
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.”
Premier League ace Sala later sent another message saying: “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!”
It is understood ice on the wings is the likely reason behind the plane going down.
Tributes have flooded in to Sala in both in the UK, France and Argentina.
Nantes fans erupted when their team scored in the ninth minute – made poignant by nine being Sala’s shirt number – during a 2-0 victory over Toulouse last weekend.
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Meanwhile the French club are now demanding payment from Cardiff over the Argentinian’s transfer fee.
Cardiff have yet to make a payment and Nantes put extra pressure on the Premier League side by asking for the first payment last Thursday.
It is understood Nantes will consider legal action if they don't receive money within the next 10 days.
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