The search for Cardiff City’s new soccer star, Emiliano Sala, resumed yesterday, 36 hours after the light aircraft that he was flying on disappeared in the English Channel.
Sala was flying from the French city of Nantes to Cardiff for his club debut when the airplane lost radar contact off the English Channel island of Guernsey late on Monday.
“We have resumed searching,” Guernsey police said. “Two planes are taking off and will search a targeted area we believe has the highest likelihood of finding anything, based on review of the tides and weather since it went missing.”
Photo: Reuters
Rescue aircraft and boats had searched more than 2,590km2 of sea for the single engine Piper Malibu by midday on Tuesday.
The 28-year-old Argentine-born forward last week joined struggling Cardiff City from Nantes for a club record fee of about 17 million euros (US$19.3 million), after scoring 12 goals for Nantes this season.
In a voice message left by Sala, published by Argentine newspaper Clarin, he said that it seemed as though the airplane was “about to crash.”
The airplane had been cruising at 1,525m when the pilot requested to descend to a lower altitude on passing Guernsey.
It lost radar contact at 700m, police said.
A number of floating objects were seen in the water on Tuesday, but it had not been determined whether they were from the missing aircraft, they said, adding that if the aircraft landed on water, the chances of survival were slim.
Fulham boss Claudio Ranieri described Sala as a “fighter” and said he was “devastated” to hear about the airplane’s disappearance.
“Emiliano is a wonderful character,” Fulham’s Web site quoted Ranieri as saying. “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.”
“Devastating news about Emiliano Sala. Wishing and praying for strength, courage and some good news for his family and friends,” AS Monaco coach Thierry Henry tweeted.
Taiwanese world No. 1 women’s doubles star Hsieh Su-wei on Saturday overcame a first-set loss to win her opening match at the Madrid Open. Top seeds Hsieh and partner Elise Mertens of Belgium, with whom she last month won her fourth Indian Wells women’s doubles title, bounced back from a rocky first set to beat Asia Muhammad of the US and Aldila Sutjiadi of Indonesia 2-6, 6-4, 10-2. Hsieh and Mertens were next to face Heather Watson of the UK and Xu Yifan of China in the round of 16. Thirty-eight-year-old Hsieh last month reclaimed her world No. 1 spot after her Indian
EYES ON THE PRIZE: Armed with three solid men’s singles shuttlers and doubles Olympic champions, Taiwan aim to make their first Thomas Cup semi-final, Chou Tien-chen said Taiwanese badminton star Tai Tzu-ying yesterday quickly dispatched Malaysia’s Goh Jin Wei in straight sets, while her male counterpart Chou Tien-chen beat Germany’s Kai Schaefer, as Taiwan’s women’s and men’s teams won their Group B opening rounds of the TotalEnergies BWF Thomas and Uber Cup Finals in Chengdu, China. World No. 5 Tai beat Goh 21-19, 22-20 in a speedy 33 minutes, her fourth straight victory over the world No. 24 shuttler since they first faced each other in the quarter-finals of the 2018 Malaysia Open, where Tai went on to win the women’s singles title. Malaysia followed up Tai’s opening victory
Chen Yi-tung (陳奕通) secured a historic Olympic berth on Sunday by winning the senior men’s foil event at the 2024 Asia Oceania Zonal Olympic Fencing Qualifiers in United Arab Emirates. Chen defeated Samuel Elijah of Singapore 15-4 in the final in Dubai to secure the only wild card in the event, making him the first male Olympian fencer from Taiwan in 36 years and only the sixth Taiwanese fencer to ever qualify for the quadrennial event. The last appearance by a Taiwanese male fencer at the Olympics was in 1988, when Wang San-tsai (王三財) and Cheng Ming-hsiang (鄭明祥) competed in Seoul. The
A soccer jersey carrying a national map including disputed Western Sahara has become a hot commodity in Morocco after a diplomatic dispute with Algeria. Retailers said RS Berkane jerseys have been flying off the shelves after a Confederation of African Football (CAF) Cup match against Algerian club USM Alger was canceled last month over the jerseys. “We are overwhelmed by the influx of messages and requests,” said Brahim Rabii, representative of the official RS Berkane jersey distributor. Algeria broke off diplomatic relations with Morocco in 2021, partly over the issue of Western Sahara. The former Spanish colony is largely controlled by Morocco, but claimed