Found Deceased Channel Islands - Emiliano Sala 28, pilot David Ibbotson, 60, missing plane, Alderney, 21 Jan 2019

[cybervampira]

Premier League striker on missing plane

Premier League footballer Emiliano Sala was on a light aircraft which disappeared over the Channel Islands, the French Civili Aviation authority has confirmed.

The Argentine striker was one of two people on board the Piper Malibu which went missing off Alderney in the Channel Islands on Monday night.

Guernsey Police said "no trace" of the missing aircraft had been found.

It left Nantes at 19:15 and had been flying at 5,000ft when it contacted Jersey air traffic control requesting descent, the force said.

The plane lost contact while at 2,300ft.

Sightings of red flares were reported during a lifeboat and helicopter search, but "nothing of significance was found", a Channel Islands Air Search spokeswoman said.



Emiliano Sala's former club Nantes FC postpone game

Live updates as Cardiff City's Emiliano Sala confirmed on board missing aircraft

Emiliano Sala missing plane: Cardiff & Nantes await news amid 'genuine concern' for striker | Goal.com

 

[cybervampira]

'No trace has yet been found': Search ongoing for missing aircraft with Cardiff City footballer onboard

[...]

Helicopters from the British and French coastguard joined renewed efforts this morning to find the plane which is thought to have crashed.

As of 1pm this afternoon, Guernsey Police said no trace of the aircraft had been found.

It said that conditions during the search this morning were calmer, but that visibility was quickly deteriorating.

“UK authorities have been calling airfields on the south coast to see if it landed there. So far we have no confirmation it did,” it said.

[...]

 

[cybervampira]

Guernsey Police

13.15 update.

There are currently two planes, two helicopters and a lifeboat searching for the aircraft.

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.

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

UK authorities have been calling airfields on the south coast to see if it landed there. So far we have no confirmation that it did.

The search will continue throughout the afternoon, with a decision taken at sunset as to whether it will carry on overnight.

11.45am update

So far over 1,000sq miles have been searched by a total of five aircraft and two lifeboats. It is being co-ordinated by the Joint Emergency Services Control Centre.

There has been no trace of the aircraft.

The search is continuing.

More information as it becomes available.

Aircraft Search: 10.20am update.

There are currently two helicopters, two planes and one lifeboat searching.

Aircraft Search: 8.45am update

Guernsey Coastguard received an alert at 20:23 from Jersey ATC, that a light aircraft had gone off their radar approximately 15 miles north of Guernsey, initiating a major search and rescue operation involving both St Peter Port and Alderney lifeboats. Air Search 1 and 2 HM Coastguard helicopters are also involved in the search.

The PA 46 Malibu, a single turbine engine aircraft was on route from Nantes in France, to Cardiff in Wales, with two people on board when it was lost off radar as Jersey ATC was attempting to make contact.

A search model was created on SARIS, based on the likely ditching position, and all search and rescue assets were tasked to the area.

The search was terminated at 02:00, with all search and rescue assets being stood down, due to strengthening winds, worsening sea conditions and reducing visibility.

At this time no trace of the missing aircraft had been found.

The aircraft departed Nantes at 1915 for Cardiff. The aircraft was flying at 5000 feet. The aircraft on passing Guernsey requested descent. Jersey ATC lost contact whilst it was flying at 2300 feet.

Air Search 1 and a French rescue helicopter based in Cherbourg, resumed the search of the area at 08:00.

 

[Timekeeper65]

So sad. He had just signed a multimillion dollar contract and posted his “last goodbye” pic.

 

[GraceG]

I wonder if there were any Sigmets (or the European equivalent) out for icing in the area. The Malibu is certified into known icing but it's flight characteristics change a LOT when you've got ice on the airframe.

I'm afraid they won't find them. If they had an engine failure they would have had time for a "MayDay". Just going off radar indicates a loss of control (accelerated stall/spin) or the like. Ditching - WAY harder than you'd think. After the whole incident with Capt "Sully" on the Hudson, a couple of us tried it at Flight Safety in a turbojet sim when I was still maintaining my airline transport pilot certificate and let's just say were the "ZERO on the Hudson"

 

[moonriverfarm]

JFK Jr again.

 

[cybervampira]

Guernsey Police

17.00 update

Search and rescue operations have been suspended as the sun has now set.

The current plan is for it to resume at sunrise tomorrow.

There will be no further updates tonight.

16.50 update

During the course of the 15-hour search, which used multiple air and sea assets from the Channel Islands, UK and France, a number of floating objects have been seen in the water. We have been unable to confirm whether any of these are from the missing aircraft. We have found no signs of those on board. If they did land on the water, the chances of survival are at this stage, unfortunately, slim.

Two planes and a lifeboat are still searching.

A decision on an overnight search will be taken shortly.

15.30 update.

One plane, one lifeboat are still searching.

Another plane will rejoin after refuelling.

1,155sq miles have been searched.

A decision whether to continue overnight will be taken at sunset.


The area searched so far, totalling 1,155sq miles

 

[cybervampira]

Survival chances are ‘slim’ as search continues for Emiliano Sala, whose plane went missing over the English Channel

John Fitzgerald, chief officer of the Channel Islands Air Search, told BBC News that the likelihood of surviving the crash was “reducing very rapidly” because of “the sea temperatures and sea conditions.” “The sea temperatures are very, very cold and just sap the core temperature of anybody in the water very, very quickly,” he said.

 

[cybervampira]

Emiliano Sala feared dead as plane goes missing over Channel Islands | Daily Mail Online

Emiliano Sala told his former Nantes teammate he 'feared for his safety' before he took off on his doomed flight across the English Channel, it has emerged.

Rescue workers searching for the Premier League footballer have said they are not expecting to find any survivors after his plane vanished last night and Guernsey Police said tonight that the chances of survival were 'slim'.

The Argentinian striker completed a £15million move to Cardiff City on Saturday before returning to France to bid farewell to his old squad at Ligue 1 side Nantes, posting a poignant photo alongside the words, 'The last goodbye'.

Sala was making a round trip in the same plane and when he arrived in France, he reportedly told ex-teammate Nicolas Pallois - who drove him back to Nantes-Atlantiqe airport - that the trip out 'had been bumpy and he feared his safety for the journey back.'

[...]

 

[cybervampira]

Missing pilot flying plane carrying Emiliano Sala 'named as Brit'

[...]

The pilot feared dead alongside Premier League footballer Emiliano Sala was tonight named as Englishman David Henderson.

The highly experienced 60-year-old airman had his passport checked alongside Sala at 7.40pm on Monday night, at Nantes-Atlantique airport.

"Mr Henderson was in charge of the Piper PA-46 Malibu that has disappeared," said a source at the airport.

Henderson, who was originally from York, had been flying the American-made plane since 2006.

In 2015, Henderson appeared in a BBC video about his life as a transatlantic pilot.

[...]

 

[keni010]

I wonder if there were any Sigmets (or the European equivalent) out for icing in the area. The Malibu is certified into known icing but it's flight characteristics change a LOT when you've got ice on the airframe.

I'm afraid they won't find them. If they had an engine failure they would have had time for a "MayDay". Just going off radar indicates a loss of control (accelerated stall/spin) or the like. Ditching - WAY harder than you'd think. After the whole incident with Capt "Sully" on the Hudson, a couple of us tried it at Flight Safety in a turbojet sim when I was still maintaining my airline transport pilot certificate and let's just say were the "ZERO on the Hudson"

I wonder if there were any Sigmets (or the European equivalent) out for icing in the area. The Malibu is certified into known icing but it's flight characteristics change a LOT when you've got ice on the airframe.

I'm afraid they won't find them. If they had an engine failure they would have had time for a "MayDay". Just going off radar indicates a loss of control (accelerated stall/spin) or the like. Ditching - WAY harder than you'd think. After the whole incident with Capt "Sully" on the Hudson, a couple of us tried it at Flight Safety in a turbojet sim when I was still maintaining my airline transport pilot certificate and let's just say were the "ZERO on the Hudson"

The aircraft took off from Nantes around 160 miles, as an estimate, from where it is suspected of going off radar screens. The route taken naturally kept the plane over land for as long as possible and it was quite possible for this aircraft to have reached a height in excess of 20,000 feet by the time it was adjacent to Alderney (St. Annes). ATC would have needed to allocate a flight level assuming it was requested.
Given that only two were on board the glide distance for this aircraft was probably at least 1.5 to 2 miles per thousand feet of height reached, the pilot, assuming he would be at 20,000 feet (which he wasn't according to reports) would have been able to glide, in the event of the single engine failing, for around 30 t0 40 miles after giving the Mayday call following the engine failure if that's what happened and easily capable of making Alderney or the French mainland.
I'm just a private pilot but I don't understand why this pilot could not have made land had he been at a sensible height ... unless there was a structural failure with the aircraft.
I also don't understand why the pilot wasn't at this considerable height, e.g. 20,000 feet given that he had to cross around 60 miles of open sea before being over land in the UK. He would of course have needed to request permission to fly at that height, given the airways. Assuming he was denied a flight level of 20k feet or similar (and assuming it was actually requested), what was his intention with regard to height, when crossing the channel. That is the question to be asked because height is a pilot's friend in the event of an engine failure, especially when over water with land not so far off in any direction.
For me, 20,000 feet would have been the minimum height I'd have requested to have crossed the channel in that location and in a single engined aircraft at night ... it giving sufficient height to glide to be over land from any position during the flight.

 

[keni010]

I wonder if there were any Sigmets (or the European equivalent) out for icing in the area. The Malibu is certified into known icing but it's flight characteristics change a LOT when you've got ice on the airframe.

I'm afraid they won't find them. If they had an engine failure they would have had time for a "MayDay". Just going off radar indicates a loss of control (accelerated stall/spin) or the like. Ditching - WAY harder than you'd think. After the whole incident with Capt "Sully" on the Hudson, a couple of us tried it at Flight Safety in a turbojet sim when I was still maintaining my airline transport pilot certificate and let's just say were the "ZERO on the Hudson"

Can I ask you, given the conditions and the approximate 50 to 60 mile sea crossing involved, what height would you have requested to make that channel crossing?

 

[GraceG]

Can I ask you, given the conditions and the approximate 50 to 60 mile sea crossing involved, what height would you have requested to make that channel crossing?

It's been 20 years since I flew for the airlines, but often on short flights, the biggest restriction was ATC not the aircraft's limitation. I used to do a scheduled airline run between Palm Springs and LAX and they never let us get above 12,000. I quit doing single engine at night after I built my first 3000 hours hauling bank checks at night (nothing spells aviation glamor better than a female pilot peeing into a jar in a crappy Navajo over the Siskiyou's at night with no functional autopilot) but if I had to do it and ATC had no limitations based on Class A Airspace, I'd probably cross at 15,000 in that airplane. It would be struggling especially if there were icing conditions if you took it up to the service ceiling.

 

[keni010]

It's been 20 years since I flew for the airlines, but often on short flights, the biggest restriction was ATC not the aircraft's limitation. I used to do a scheduled airline run between Palm Springs and LAX and they never let us get above 12,000. I quit doing single engine at night after I built my first 3000 hours hauling bank checks at night (nothing spells aviation glamor better than a female pilot peeing into a jar in a crappy Navajo over the Siskiyou's at night with no functional autopilot) but if I had to do it and ATC had no limitations based on Class A Airspace, I'd probably cross at 15,000 in that airplane. It would be struggling especially if there were icing conditions if you took it up to the service ceiling.

OK ... but I was taught but many years after getting my licence, to consider the glide distance available after taking into account wind, loads (fuel, passengers and baggage etc.) ...it's still an estimate of course. You make a good point on icing conditions ... as said, I'm only a private pilot flying PA28s since 1976 so your experience is far superior to mine. I'd still have requested 20k had I been licensed to fly that PA46 and if I had an instrument rating ... which I don't!
I have to put my hands up to this though ... I regularly crossed the channel from Folkestone to Cap Griz Nez in France, either to reach Le Touquet or Ostend in Belgium ... and I always crossed at 2,500 feet .. not enough height to glide from mid (ish) channel to make land. But I was very young! Good for you by the way .. getting your commercial licence ... I was too selfish to do that at my age back then!

 

[keni010]

Can I ask you, given the conditions and the approximate 50 to 60 mile sea crossing involved, what height would you have requested to make that channel crossing?

Interesting to hear from someone who has done a sim of the Hudson "landing" I always believed and still do, that the captain on that flight had absolutely zero choice. It was his one "option" ... given that he had no choice, he had to keep the gear up of course and had to keep the plane flying for as long as possible so as to touch the water at as slow a speed as possible... his only variable was the angle at which to ditch. I'm not insisting I'm right here .. it's just what I feel. I feel that, at the final moments, I would have wanted to keep the tail low with the nose relatively high, for as long as the airspeed would allow me to .. i.e. stick central and hard back when near ditching ... then .... keeping in mind the words, "smooth" and "gentle" etc. all of the time ... hope for the best!
In your opinion, what did he do that a novice pilot like myself wouldn't have? I don't see what else he or I could have done in that situation. Maybe I was too hard on him when I said that any pilot would have done the same as he did. There was nothing more he could have done. Perhaps it's the way he did what he did which separates him from the rest ... in which case, how was that different to what I just described?

 

[keni010]

Interesting to hear from someone who has done a sim of the Hudson "landing" I always believed and still do, that the captain on that flight had absolutely zero choice. It was his one "option" ... given that he had no choice, he had to keep the gear up of course and had to keep the plane flying for as long as possible so as to touch the water at as slow a speed as possible... his only variable was the angle at which to ditch. I'm not insisting I'm right here .. it's just what I feel. I feel that, at the final moments, I would have wanted to keep the tail low with the nose relatively high, for as long as the airspeed would allow me to .. i.e. stick central and hard back when near ditching ... then .... hope for the best! It would be a balance of angle at touch down and speed, so perhaps a little nose down right at the very end for "smoothness" so as to avoid a "slamming into the water"... Not easy to explain.
In your opinion, what did he do that a novice pilot like myself wouldn't have? I don't see what else he or I could have done in that situation. Maybe I was too hard on him when I said that any pilot would have done the same as he did.

 

[GraceG]

Interesting to hear from someone who has done a sim of the Hudson "landing" I always believed and still do, that the captain on that flight had absolutely zero choice. It was his one "option" ... given that he had no choice, he had to keep the gear up of course and had to keep the plane flying for as long as possible so as to touch the water at as slow a speed as possible... his only variable was the angle at which to ditch. I'm not insisting I'm right here .. it's just what I feel. I feel that, at the final moments, I would have wanted to keep the tail low with the nose relatively high, for as long as the airspeed would allow me to .. i.e. stick central and hard back when near ditching ... then .... keeping in mind the words, "smooth" and "gentle" etc. all of the time ... hope for the best!
In your opinion, what did he do that a novice pilot like myself wouldn't have? I don't see what else he or I could have done in that situation. Maybe I was too hard on him when I said that any pilot would have done the same as he did. There was nothing more he could have done. Perhaps it's the way he did what he did which separates him from the rest ... in which case, how was that different to what I just described?

Low time pilots tend to try and turn around to land back at the airport of departure. It's often fatal.

 

[cybervampira]

Sala's chilling last audio message as he feared 'plane was about to fall apart'

[...]

Argentinian media outlet Ole have now released haunting verified audio sent from Sala to close friends on WhatsApp in the final moments before the plane vanished over the English Channel.

[...]

Sala says: “Hello, little brothers, how are you crazy people?

"Brother, I’m dead, I was here in Nantes doing things, things, things, things and things, and it never stops, it never stops, it never stops.

"I’m here on a plane that looks like it’s about to fall apart, and I’m going to Cardiff, crazy, tomorrow we already start, and in the afternoon we start training, boys, in my new team…

"Let’s see what happens, so, how are you brothers and sisters, all right?

"If in an hour and a half you have no news from me, I don’t know if they are going to send someone to look for me because they cannot find me, but you know … Dad, how scared am I!”

[...]

 

[GraceG]

Sala's chilling last audio message as he feared 'plane was about to fall apart'

[...]

Argentinian media outlet Ole have now released haunting verified audio sent from Sala to close friends on WhatsApp in the final moments before the plane vanished over the English Channel.

[...]

Sala says: “Hello, little brothers, how are you crazy people?

"Brother, I’m dead, I was here in Nantes doing things, things, things, things and things, and it never stops, it never stops, it never stops.

"I’m here on a plane that looks like it’s about to fall apart, and I’m going to Cardiff, crazy, tomorrow we already start, and in the afternoon we start training, boys, in my new team…

"Let’s see what happens, so, how are you brothers and sisters, all right?

"If in an hour and a half you have no news from me, I don’t know if they are going to send someone to look for me because they cannot find me, but you know … Dad, how scared am I!”

[...]

 

[GraceG]

Older model single-engine airplane with a history of engine failures. A middle-aged pilot with a history of flying in "extreme conditions" Then they take off into bad weather. I remember flying air charter in Central California a lifetime ago. People would call for a quote and would then say, "I can get it a LOT cheaper than that at Acme Airways." To which I would reply - "If you are going in for Brain surgery would you go for the lowest bidder?" The cheaper flight operations are not usually legal, or safe.