The global football community was left devastated on January 21, when the aeroplane carrying Argentine footballer Emiliano Sala and pilot David Ibbotson went missing over the Channel as it flew from Nantes, where Mr Sala had previously been playing, to his new club in the Welsh capital. After three weeks of searching, rescuers discovered the wreckage of the Piper Malibu near Guernsey. A remotely operated vehicle (ROV) has already scanned the crash site and detected one body although the identity of the body is currently unknown.
As it stands there are no plans to retrieve the wreckage and the Air Accidents Investigation Branch (AAIB) is only focussed on bringing the body, or bodies, to the surface.
This has left professional pilots outraged as they believe the wreckage needs to be retrieved to determine what exactly went wrong and to help the families involved come to terms with the tragedy.
Speaking on the Professional Pilots Rumour Network (PPRuNe) internet forum, user ATC Watcher wrote: “The former head of the British European Airlines (BEA) confirmed that for investigation purposes they would not need to be retrieving the aircraft.
“Inspecting visually the cockpit (e.g. if anti-icing was on a, which air source was selected, state of the propeller, etc.), using an ROV would be enough.
“He also said that normally general aviation safety & emergency procedures (GA SEP) on a VFR flight plan lost at sea would not cause a major investigation and definitively not retrieving the aircraft from the sea bed.”
This shocked other members of the forum, with user Shropshire Pilot saying it is only logical that the wreckage be lifted from the sea bed.
The pilot wrote: “I would have thought a recovery would be necessary to assess the state of the engine at the time of the ditching.
“Irrespective of all the other speculation, if the fan quit prior to the descent, I would imagine the maintenance organisation would find themselves in the legal cross hairs.
“Regardless of the rest of the legal conjecture etc etc, the accident will have happened because of one or more of three factors: 1) Icing 2) Pilot malfunction of some sort or 3) Engine out. The last being pretty significant.
“I cannot imagine why they weren’t carrying an Emergency Locator Transmitter (ELT) in the aircraft ready to activate in situations where it all goes wrong.”
Principle investigator of the privately-funded search, David Mearns, also agreed: “I think it’s imperative that the plane is recovered, and even more so now we know someone is down there.”
An official search operation was called off on January 24 after Guernsey’s harbour master Captain David Barker said the chances of survival following such a long period were “extremely remote”.
Two seat cushions, which are likely to have come from the plane, were found last week on the French coast.
Cardiff City supporters paid an emotional tribute to Sala on Saturday in the club’s first home game since he disappeared.
The national colours of the Argentine striker were displayed by fans during a minute’s silence before the match against Bournemouth.