Fresh search for missing plane carrying Cardiff City footballer Emiliano Sala underway

A fresh search for the plane that was carrying missing Cardiff City footballer Emiliano Sala started on Sunday morning.

The privately-funded operation is being carried out on behalf of the Sala family and is being directed by marine scientist David Mearns, who claims to have located 24 major shipwrecks during his career.

Argentinian striker Sala, 28, was en route to Cardiff from Nantes in France when the Piper Malibu N264DB being piloted by David Ibbotson, 59, disappeared over the English Channel on January 21.

An official search operation was called off on January 24 after Guernsey’s harbour master Captain David Barker said the chances of survival following such a long period were “extremely remote”.

Two seat cushions, which are likely to have come from the plane, were found earlier this week.

Mr Mearns, director of Blue Water Recoveries, said he would be leading a team of seven other people on the vessel FPV Morven which will be be operating around the clock.

He said weather conditions were expected to be good enough on Sunday to allow the fresh search to start.

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Mr Mearns said the the search is being carried out “in close co-ordination” with the UK Air Accidents Investigation Branch (AAIB), which is also sending a team aboard a vessel, the Geo Ocean III, and was due to arrive at the search area north of Guernsey at around 9am on Sunday.

Mr Mearns said the AAIB has a “high confidence level” the plane could be in an area of around four square nautical miles but it could have moved once on the seabed.