A deep sea expert employed by the family of missing Premier League footballer Emiliano Sala to locate wreckage of the plane he was on when it vanished has said it is unlikely the aircraft remains intact.
David Mearns told reporters at a press conference on Saturday that a new search will commence on Sunday and that his team does not expect to find the missing plane in one piece.
Mearns said Sala’s family, and the family of the British pilot David Ibbotson, were “devastated”, ITV News reported.
“I want to help them, as simple as that, any way we can. The family are devastated we’re trying to provide answers, that’s the ultimate objective,” Mearns said.
He added: “We are giving the families the best chance to find the answers they don’t have. We are trying to provide an answer to them.”
He said he hoped the search for wreckage would take less than three days and the private mission will run alongside an official probe by the Air Accidents Investigation Branch.
It comes after two cushions which washed ashore in north-western France were said by investigators to be “highly likely” to have come from the missing plane.
The private search mission, funded by Sala’s family, will focus on an area of 25 square nautical mile area of the seabed north of Alderney in the Channel Islands.
Sala’s family had previously refused to give up hope of finding the 28-year-old alive.
The small aircraft, a Piper Malibu, vanished at around 8.30pm GMT on 21 January and had been transporting Cardiff City striker Sala who was due to begin training for the Welsh side following his transfer from FC Nantes last week.
Sala was onboard the plane alongside Ibbotson, 59, who was from Lincolnshire. The plane lost contact near the Casquets lighthouse around eight miles north-west of Alderney.
The family of the Argentine player – who earned Cardiff’s biggest-ever fee of a reported £15m – fundraised tens of thousands of pounds for the private search and enlisted Mearns.
The seat cushions washed up on a beach in north-western France last week.