Body from plane wreckage identified as footballer Sala -UK police

Dorset police made the announcement on Thursday evening after a coroner's examination of the body, which was recovered from the seabed wreckage of the plane on Wednesday.

General view of tributes left outside the stadium for Emiliano Sala, Nantes, France January 30, 2019.
Reuters

General view of tributes left outside the stadium for Emiliano Sala, Nantes, France January 30, 2019.

Emiliano Sala's family grieved on Friday after British authorities formally identified his body as the one recovered from the submerged wreckage of a plane that went down in the Channel more than two weeks ago.

The 28-year-old footballer had been en route from Nantes in western France on January 21 to make his debut for Premier League team Cardiff City when the small aircraft he was travelling in disappeared over the English Channel. The single-engined Piper Malibu aircraft had crashed into the sea.

The wreckage of the plane was found on Sunday following a privately-funded underwater search.

"We can now begin to mourn our son and our brother," the Argentine Cardiff City striker's family said in a statement.

"We would like to thank you for all of your signs of affection and support in the most painful time of our life.

"To see everyone doing everything possible to join us in the search has been a precious help to us," the family said.

Argentine footballing idols Diego Maradona and Gabriel Batistuta also paid tribute to Sala, 28.

Sala had agreed to join Welsh club Cardiff for a club-record fee of 15 million pounds ($19.43 million) from French Ligue 1 club Nantes.

The families of Sala and Ibbotson have been informed about the latest developments and the investigation into the circumstances of the death continues, police said on Thursday. 

($1 = 0.7722 pounds) .

Route 6