2019 Piper PA-46 Malibu crash

On 21 January 2019, a Piper PA-46 Malibu light aircraft transporting Argentine football player Emiliano Sala crashed in the English Channel off Alderney, Channel Islands. The aircraft was travelling from Nantes, France, to Cardiff, Wales. The wreckage of the aircraft was found thirteen days later on the seabed at a depth of 220 feet . On 7 February, Sala's body was recovered from the wreckage. No trace of the pilot was found.

The aircraft departed from Nantes Atlantique Airport at 19:15 GMT bound for Cardiff Airport. Sala had been signed two days previously by Cardiff City from FC Nantes. The pilot was identified by Guernsey Police as David Ibbotson. Shortly before contact with Jersey air traffic control was lost, a request was made by the pilot to descend from 5,000 feet to 2,500 feet , in order to maintain visual meteorological conditions. Contact was lost when the aircraft was at an altitude of 2,300 feet . At 20:23 GMT, Guernsey Coastguard received an alert from Jersey air traffic control saying that a plane had gone off the radar around 13 nautical miles north of Guernsey. The plane was then around 7 nautical miles northwest of Alderney, Channel Islands, near Casquets lighthouse.

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