Reports: Body found in the wreckage of the underwater plane carrying Emiliano Sala
On January 23th, football player Emiliano Sala was on his way to his new football club (Cardiff City). He went from France to Cardiff in Wales. But then fate struck: the plane was in together with his pilot disappeared from the radars. In the last phone call to his father, he seemed to be anxious and nervous.
Yesterday, 12 days after the plane's disappearance, its crash has been confirmed. A research vessel of a company from Zwevegem (Flanders, Belgium) found the plane on the bottom of the sea (in the English Channel) and consequently confirmed the tragic crash of Sala's plane. That company was GEOxyz, a Belgian company that "works together with the AAIB (Air Accidents Investigation Branch) of the UK government," says Patrick Reyntjens of GEOxyz.
GEOxyz has different vessels mapping the bottom of the sea. The British Army ordered one of their vessels, the Geo Ocean III, to comb out a square of about 2 by 2 miles. Reacting to the crowdfunding action set up by the desperate family of Sala, David Mearns (expert in finding shipwrecks) decided to lead the operations. Also, a French ship helped in the investigations. Together, the equipment necessary for this task could be found.
With an underwater robot, the wreck could be investigated more closely and that way, the investigators could recognize Sala's plane.
Tragically, video footage shows the presence of a body (Sala's or his pilot's). According to the AAIB, the shocked families of the two people who were in the plane have been informed. They will look together what the next steps will be.
The ship Geo Ocean III now stands on the location of the crashed plane. A possible next action is the salvage of the plane, but therefore, the entire crash zone needs to be mapped.