Family, friends of missing soccer player Emiliano Sala oversee new search

LONDON - Family and friends of missing Argentine soccer player Emiliano Sala went on a special flight Monday to view the area over the English Channel where his plane disappeared last week.

They went on a "scenic flight" that circled the island of Alderney, according to Aurigny, an airline that operates in the Channel Islands.

More than 300,000 euros ($340,000) have been raised online to allow Sala's family to fund a private search after an official rescue operation for the light aircraft carrying Sala and pilot David Ibbotson was called off on Thursday. The flight was going from the French city of Nantes to Cardiff, where Sala was set to start playing for his new club in the Premier League.

Argentine soccer greats Lionel Messi and Diego Maradona were among those making pleas to resume a search.

David Mearns, an American-born marine scientist and shipwreck-hunting specialist who is based in southeast England, is helping with the private search. Mearns has said he has located 24 major shipwrecks.

"This is a family that has come from Argentina with this huge shock out of nowhere and (is) struggling with what had happened, with very, very few answers about an unexplained loss," Mearns said. "They're looking at this as a missing person, a missing plane and until they are satisfied, that's the mode that we are in."

The official search was abandoned after three days, with Guernsey harbor master Capt. David Barker saying the chances of survival after such a long period are "extremely remote."

Cardiff signed Sala from Nantes for a club-record fee, reported to be 15 million pounds ($19 million), on Jan. 19. The striker left the Welsh capital after completing the move and returned to Nantes to collect his belongings and say goodbye to teammates and staff of the French club.

Cardiff's first game since Sala's disappearance will be at Arsenal on Tuesday, and manager Neil Warnock said some of his players have needed "help from outside" the club to deal with the situation.

"One or two of the lads, I think it was only right that they speak to people who might help them in his situation," Warnock said. "You don't realize the trauma that it causes a lot of families, whether it's memories brought back or different situations."

Warnock said it had been the most difficult week of his 39-year managerial career.

"I think that it is such a strange situation," he said. "I don't think we could have played a game on Saturday, but it doesn't get that much better this morning ... I don't know how it's going to be in the next 24 hours."

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