Emiliano Sala latest: family of missing pilot David Ibbotson launch fundraiser to continue search after Cardiff City striker's body found

David Ibbotson, who piloted the plane carrying Emiliano Sala that crashed into the English Channel, is still missing.
GoFundMe / Ibbotson Family
Bonnie Christian9 February 2019

The family of the missing pilot of the plane carrying footballer Emiliano Sala have set up a fundraising page asking for donations to restart a search for him.

Sala’s body was recovered and formally identified this week after a privately-funded search team located the plane’s wreckage off the coast of Alderney.

But David Ibbotson, from Crowle in northern Lincolnshire, who was piloting the light aircraft, has not been found.

A GoFundMe page has so far raised more than £17,000 to help locate him.

The wreckage of Sala's plane underwater (AAIB)

A message on the site reads: "Please help bring David Ibbotson home and help give him the send off he deserves.

"As a family we are relying on the kindness of the good hearted people to help us raise the much needed funds to help us find our beloved Dad, Husband and Son.

"As a family we are trying to come to terms with the tragedy and the loss of two incredible men.

"To be told the search has now been called off for the foreseeable future has only made this tragic time more difficult.

"We can not bare the thought of him being alone, we need him home so that we are able to lay him to rest."

The wreckage and Sala’s body were recovered on Wednesday following a search by renowned marine explorer David Mearns.

The initial search was called off three days by the Air Accident Investigation Branch (AAIB) after the men and their plane, which had been travelling from Nantes in France to Cardiff, went missing.

The Piper Malibu N264DB plane lost contact with air traffic control over the Channel, north of Guernsey, on Monday, January 21.

Although Mr Ibbotson, 59, of Crowle, Lincolnshire, has not been located, poor weather conditions meant a "difficult decision was taken to bring the overall operation to a close", a spokesman for the AAIB said on Wednesday.

The aircraft remains underwater off the coast of Guernsey in the English Channel.

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