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Plane carrying Premier League footballer goes missing over English channel

Cardiff City soccer player Emiliano Sala was on board a light aircraft that lost radar contact over the English channel late on Monday.

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Cardiff City soccer player Emiliano Sala was on board a light aircraft that lost radar contact over the English channel late on Monday. British and French coastguards scoured the seas off Guernsey on Tuesday for the single-engine plane after it went missing on its way from Nantes in western France to the Welsh city of Cardiff.

According to British media, the small plane – a Piper Malibu – travelling from Nantes to Cardiff went missing near the Casquets lighthouse, with Sala one of two people on board.

“Mr Sala was aboard this aircraft. The search for it is continuing and that is all I can say,” A French civil aviation authority spokeswoman was quoted as saying by The Guardian.

Cardiff’s chairman, Mehmet Dalman, said: “We are very concerned by the latest news that a light aircraft lost contact over the Channel last night. We are awaiting confirmation before we can say anything further. We are very concerned for the safety of Emiliano Sala.”

The 28-year-old Argentine forward joined Premier League strugglers Cardiff City from FC Nantes last week for a club record fee of around 17 million euros ($19.32 million). He had played in France since 2012.

Local coastguards were alerted by air traffic control at 20:23 GMT that an aircraft with two people on board had gone missing. Lifeboats and helicopters were sent out but the search was suspended four hours later as weather conditions worsened.

Search teams resumed work on Tuesday morning.

"At this time no trace of the missing aircraft had been found," Guernsey police said.

Sala had scored 12 league goals in 19 appearances for Nantes in France's Ligue 1 this season before switching this week to Cardiff. 

(With Reuters Inputs)

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