Hopes fade in search for Cardiff striker Sala
Argentinian left chilling message before going missing en route to Wales
The search for Emiliano Sala swept the seas between France and England yesterday for more than 36 hours after the plane he was flying in disappeared, as a recording emerged of a fearful voice message he apparently sent from the aircraft.
The 28-year-old Argentine forward was flying from Nantes in western France to Cardiff for his debut with his English Premier League club, after becoming their £15-million (S$26.3m) record signing.
The plane had been cruising at 1,525m when the pilot requested to descend to a lower altitude on passing the island of Guernsey. It lost radar contact at 701m, Guernsey police said.
Two planes scoured an area north-west of the Channel Island of Alderney where unidentified debris was earlier spotted, but rescuers said chances of finding Cardiff City-bound Sala or the pilot alive were fading fast.
"We're up there looking for stuff that we don't expect to find," John Fitzgerald, chief officer of the Channel Islands Air Search, told Reuters.
"If there was anything on the surface, I think we would have found it on the first night because the weather conditions were really good...
"There's no chance. You'd have to be really, really fit to survive even four or five hours in the (barely 10 deg C) water."
Guernsey Police, meanwhile, said they are basing their search 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; or the aircraft broke up on contact with the water, leaving them in the sea."
They added that the "search area is prioritised on the life raft option".
In a chilling voice message sent to friends, which Argentina's Clarin newspaper said was authenticated by Sala's father, Horacio, the player expressed concerns about the single-engine Piper Malibu aircraft he was flying in.
In audio messages, he is reported to have said: "I'm here on a plane that looks like it's about to fall apart, and I'm going to Cardiff, crazy...
"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!"
British media reported that Cardiff City chairman Mehmet Dalman said that Sala rejected the offer of a commercial flight from the club, instead choosing to travel on a private plane chartered by the family of a high-profile football agent.
Said Dalman: "I can say to you categorically that the plane had nothing to do with Cardiff City.
"We were not involved in booking the plane. In fact, we are trying to ascertain ourselves exactly what did happen."
BLACK BOX
What happened might remain a mystery, with The Independent reporting that the plane is "unlikely" to have been fitted with a black box, as it was not mandatory for light aircraft such as the one carrying Sala.
Black boxes record flight data and cockpit audio and are usually key for crash investigators.
The newspaper quoted a spokesman from the United Kingdom's aviation regulator.
Cardiff City supporters laid tributes outside their Cardiff City Stadium to a player they barely knew but had built high hopes around.
In Nantes, fans laid rows of yellow flowers and held club scarves aloft in the city centre.
Said former Nantes manager Claudio Ranieri, on his current club Fulham's website: "Emiliano is a wonderful character.
"He's a fantastic footballer who always gave his best when we worked together in France.
"Knowing him as a person, he's a fighter."
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