Search still on for Emiliano Sala’s missing light aircraft

Cardiff fans have expressed their shock after it was confirmed the club’s record signing Emiliano Sala was onboard a plane that went missing over the English channel on Monday night.

The Argentine star, who cost the Premier League club £15million, was one of three people flying back to Wales from Nantes where he had gone to say goodbye to his former team-mates.

On Tuesday Nantes President Waldemar Kita said: ‘He was a polite, kind and adorable boy, loved by everyone. He was very respectful, very courteous. I am thinking about his family and all his friends.

He added: ‘I am still hoping that it is not finished, that he is somewhere, that he will be there. I have just found about this like you have.’

On Tuesday French police and the country’s civil aviation authority confirmed the striker, who only completed his move to Wales last weekend, was on the Piper Malibu, which disappeared from radar the previous night.

At midday on Tuesday, Channel Islands Air Search chief John Fitzgerald said there was ‘less than 5 per cent’ chance of finding anyone alive.

‘The water really is very cold at the moment so if there were any survivors in the water then it’s so cold you’ve only got about an hour of survival,’ he told Sportsmail.

‘In some respects last night we were hopefully looking for life rafts and life jackets with lights on so we could pick people up.

‘Today I think we’re more looking for any debris that could be in the water from an aircraft that could be broken up or if people are on the surface.’

Police on Guernsey said the search for the plane resumed at 8am on Tuesday, having been called off at 2am ‘due to strengthening winds, worsening sea conditions and reducing visibility’.