Emiliano Sala search: Officials say they are ‘not expecting anyone to be alive’ with no trace of missing plane

Argentine football is known to have been on board a light aircraft on its way to Cardiff when it disappeared ‘without trace’ on Monday evening

Officials searching for missing Cardiff City footballer Emiliano Sala have said that they are “not expecting anyone to be alive” as they continue to search for a missing plane in the English Channel, more than 14 hours after it disappeared from radar.

The 28-year-old footballer was one of two people on a light aircraft travelling from Nantes to Cardiff, having agreed a £15m transfer from the French cities Ligue 1 club to the Premier League side on Saturday.

But his flight, due to land in Cardiff at around 9pm on Monday night, did not arrive and authorities have confirmed that he was on board the Piper Malibu light aircraft that disappeared near Alderney, not far from the Casquets lighthouse.

Speaking to the Associated Press, chief executive of the Channel Islands Air Search, John Fitzgerald said: "We are not expecting anyone to be alive. I don't think the coastguard are either. We just don't know how it disappeared."

Fitzgerald added that the plane "just completely vanished. There was no radio conversation."

In an earlier statement, Fitzgerald confirmed that initial attempts to search for any wreckage had to be abandoned in the early hours of Tuesday morning as conditions worsened, before resuming at 8am. Both French and British maritime authorities have been involved in the search, which has been carried out by five aircrafts and two lifeboats across the surrounding area of the Channel Island Alderney.

"We were called out by Guernsey Coastguard at 8.30pm, just as the aircraft had dropped off the radar and we were over Alderney by about 9pm,” Fitzgerald added.

"We stayed there until midnight before we flew back to Guernsey to change over the crew and refuel.

"There was about 15 to 20 miles visibility so we could see quite a lot during the first search but the lifeboats found it quite difficult. That area is always quite rough but from 1,000 feet, we can see straight down.

"It was not that bad but at about 2 or 3am wintry showers set in and the search was postponed. We went out again at 8am."

Sala's flight to Cardiff went missing near the island of Alderney (AFP/Getty)

Guernsey Police stated there was “no trace of the aircraft” despite more than 1,000sq miles being searched for by the Joint Emergency Services Control Centre, and despite conditions improving throughout the morning to allow the search efforts to continue, the weather started to deteriorate again in the afternoon.

They added that with no sign of a crash site and no confirmation of the plane landing at an unknown airstrip in the south of the United Kingdom, a decision would need to be taken on the search continuing beyond the end of the day.

“There are currently two planes, two helicopters and a lifeboat searching for the aircraft,” a statement from Guernsey Police said shortly after 1pm. “No trace has yet been found.

“Conditions during the search last night were challenging, with wave heights of up to two metres, with heavy rain showers and poor visibility

Cardiff signing Sala was on board a plane that went missingon Monday night (Getty)

“Today the sea is much calmer, although visibility was good, it is now deteriorating.”