Argentinian soccer star Emiliano Sala is presumed dead after a small plane he and another person were aboard went missing over the English Channel, according to reports and the French civil aviation authority. The single-engine aircraft, a Piper PA-46 Malibu, had departed at 7:15 p.m. Monday from the French city of Nantes and was headed for Cardiff, the capital of Wales, when it suddenly disappeared off the coast of Guernsey, an island in the English Channel, officials said. By 8:23 p.m., the island’s coast guard received an alert that the aircraft had gone off their radar about 15 miles north of Guernsey, prompting a major search and rescue operation that continued into Tuesday, officials said. “The aircraft on passing Guernsey requested descent,” police said in a statement, noting that the plane was flying at an altitude of 2,300 feet when it lost contact. The search was temporarily stopped at 2 a.m. due to high winds and worsening sea conditions, which reduced visibility, and it resumed Tuesday morning, officials said. In an update Tuesday, Guernsey police said, “So far over 1,000 square miles have been searched by a total of five aircraft and two lifeboats … There has been no trace of the aircraft. The search is continuing.” Sala’s father, Horacio, told Argentine television station C5N he was “distraught” by the news. “I don’t know anything, I haven’t had any information. I can’t believe it, it’s incredible,” Horacio said. “I’m distraught. Hopefully everything will be OK.” Sala, 28, was flying to Wales to join English Premier League club Cardiff City, officials said. Cardiff City signed the young striker last Saturday for a reported $19 million in a deal that lasts through 2022 — a club record. “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,” Mehmet Dalman, chairman of Cardiff City, said in a statement, according to The Guardian. Sala, who played with the French soccer club FC Nantes, had returned to France after signing with Cardiff City and was due in Cardiff for training on Tuesday. On Monday, he posted a photo of himself and his former teammates on Instagram, writing: “The final goodbye @FCNantes.” Over the weekend, the Cardiff City football club posted a video of Sala on its Facebook page. “I can’t wait to start training, meeting my new teammates and to get down to work,” Sala said in the video. Sala joined FC Nantes in 2015 and has scored 42 goals for the club. Meanwhile, Nantes has postponed its Wednesday French Cup match with L’Entente Sannois Saint-Gratien amid the search for Sala. With Post wires<doc-sep>Soccer star Emiliano Sala delivered a desperate message to relatives just before the single-engine plane he was flying in vanished over the English Channel: “Dad, I’m really scared.” The 28-year-old striker’s likely final words emerged on Wednesday as the search for him and the pilot of the Piper Malibu resumed. “I’m in the plane and it looks like it’s going to fall apart,” the Argentina-born forward told friends in a voice message from the aircraft. “Dad, I’m really scared.” Sala was set to make his debut in the English Premier League playing for the struggling Cardiff City. He had inked a record $19 million contract with the club just last week. The star, who has scored 12 goals this season for French club FC Nantes, was traveling to Cardiff, the capital of Wales, from Nantes. His voice message was authenticated by his father, Horacio, according to Argentina’s Clarin newspaper. The Piper Malibu dropped off the radar at just over 2,000 feet 15 miles north of Guernsey Monday night. The aircraft had been cruising at 5,000 feet when the pilot requested to descend to a lower altitude near Guernsey, police said. The disappearance sparked a massive search and rescue effort, with three planes and a helicopter scouring the waters northwest of the Channel Island of Alderney where debris was spotted. In a tweet Wednesday afternoon, Guernsey Police said a search of 280 square miles had been completed in the last five hours. “There is as yet no trace today of the missing aircraft,” the department wrote. Hopes of finding the soccer star or the pilot alive continued to dwindle fast. “We’re up there looking for stuff that we don’t expect to find,” said John Fitzgerald, the chief officer of the Channel Islands Air Search. “If there was anything on the surface I think we would have found it on the first night because the weather conditions were really good.” The pilot had filed a “VFR” flight plan, which requires pilots to avoid bad weather, have sight of the ground and stay out of certain air corridors, Fitzgerald said. Channel waters registered barely 50 degree Fahrenheit on Wednesday — leaving “no chance” of survival, he added. “You’d have to be really, really fit to survive even four or five hours in the water,” Fitzgerald said. In France and Wales, fans from both soccer teams paid tribute to the young star. “Sala a Bluebird. R.I.P. Bro. Big Love,” one wrote, referring to Cardiff’s nickname, in a message at the stadium. In Nantes, supporters laid rows of yellow flowers and held club scarves in the city center late on Tuesday. Cardiff chairman Mehmet Dalman said the club wasn’t involved in Sala’s travel to the city, according to British media. “He declined and made his own arrangements,” he said. On social media, Sala boasted about starting the next chapter of his soccer career. “There is a new Sala in town @ premierleague Very happy to sign here @ cardiffcityfc! !” he tweeted on Saturday, with a photo of himself holding up a blue jersey.<doc-sep>London (CNN) The search for a missing plane carrying Argentine soccer player Emiliano Sala to his new team in the UK was called off for the evening Tuesday, with authorities warning they did not expect to find any survivors in the English Channel. Search and rescue operations will resume Wednesday morning, police said. Sala, 28, had just signed with English Premier League club Cardiff City for a reported £15 million ($19.3 million) from French club Nantes. The striker was returning to his new club after saying farewell to his former teammates in France. The plane, a single turbine Piper Malibu, was flying to Cardiff from Nantes in northern France when it disappeared from radar near the Channel Islands just before 8:30 p.m. local time (3:30 p.m. ET) Monday. Sala's name was on the list of passengers, Frederic Solano of France's Directorate General for Civil Aviation told CNN. Authorities, who have searched 1,155 square miles, said that floating objects had been spotted in the water, but they weren't able to confirm whether they were 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," Guernsey police said on Twitter. 16.10 update This is the area which has been searched, totalling 1,155sq miles pic.twitter.com/x6p8gHJj9Y — Guernsey Police (@GuernseyPolice) January 22, 2019 The plane requested descent on passing Guernsey but lost contact with air traffic control while it was flying at 2,300 feet. "There was no distress call, it was simply lost from radar and from communications," Capt. David Barker, harbormaster for the state of Guernsey, told reporters. "The weather conditions are better now, but the seawater is not very warm. I'm imagining that people in a light aircraft wouldn't be wearing particularly warm clothing, and so it is concerning because if they're in the water, their chances of surviving are diminishing all the time." 'I was in shock' Sala's father, Horacio, told CNN en Español that he heard the news early Tuesday. "I was in shock," he said, adding that he had not received contact from the authorities or his son's soccer club. He last spoke with his son Sunday after he signed with Cardiff City. "He was happy for his next step ... going forward ... a bigger club and he could play premierships ... he was very pleased," Horacio Sala said. Cardiff City, which paid a club record fee for Sala, said Tuesday it would "continue to pray for positive news." Emiliano Sala celebrates after scoring a goal for the French club Nantes in August. "We were very shocked upon hearing the news that the plane had gone missing," a statement from Cardiff City CEO Ken Choo said on the club's website. "We expected Emiliano to arrive last night into Cardiff and today was due to be his first day with the team. "Our owner, Tan Sri Vincent Tan, and chairman, Mehmet Dalman, are all very distressed about the situation. "We made the decision first thing this morning to call off training with the thoughts of the squad, management staff and the entire club with Emiliano and the pilot. "All of us at Cardiff City FC would like to thank our fans, and the entire footballing family for their support at this difficult time. We continue to pray for positive news." French police gather Tuesday at the entrance of the FC Nantes training center in La Chapelle-sur-Erdre. Sala, who agreed a three-year deal with the Welsh club Saturday, had scored 12 league goals for Nantes this season. Cardiff is in the Premier League's relegation zone and has scored just 19 goals in 23 league games. The Argentine athlete would have likely been available to make his debut for Cardiff in next week's Premier League match at Arsenal. Sala scored 42 goals for Nantes since joining from Bordeaux in 2015, particularly impressing in this campaign. In his most recent tweet Monday, just before he was due to fly, Sala posted a photo of himself with the Nantes FC team and the caption: "the last one, goodbye." Waldemar Kita : "Je pense à ses amis, sa famille. Je suis toujours dans l'espoir, c'est un battant. Ce n'est pas fini, il est peut-être quelque part. Dans l'attente de nouvelles que nous espérons positives, nous sommes très touchés par tous les soutiens reçus. "#PrayForSala pic.twitter.com/0l8y97YrKi — FC Nantes (@FCNantes) January 22, 2019 "My thoughts are with his friends, his family. I still have hope, he is a fighter," Nantes chairman Waldemar Kita said in a statement on the French club's website. "It is not over, he might still be somewhere. Waiting for news we hope to be positive, we are very touched by all the support we have received since this morning." France's Football Federation confirmed on its website it had postponed Nantes' French Cup game scheduled for Wednesday.<doc-sep>Cardiff City Supporters Trust chairman Keith Morgan has released a statement on events. “We know very little about Sala, but the fans were excited about him joining and the prospect of seeing him play. Football takes a back seat at times like this," he said. “From my perspective I can say I’ve already been contacted by dozens of people from other supporters trusts to see how they can help. The football family gathers together at times like these. “It’s a strange situation because Sala never played for Cardiff City. Tragically it seems the chance he would have had to do that has been taken from him. “The club will pay tribute in time and I think the game with Arsenal next week will take place. “We will liaise with the club as we have a close working relationship with Mehmet Dalman and Ken Choo over what will happen next. “It’s just shock and very difficult to absorb at the moment. “I’ve been a football fan all my life and I often tell my wife I love it more than her. But at times like this, football doesn’t matter at all. We are thinking of Sala and his family. “We will try to contact FC Nantes because we don’t know much about him as a person or whether he has a family. “They are what’s most important news. It’s just horrific and news like this makes you think about your priorities in life.”<doc-sep>
The search for the missing plane carrying an Argentine soccer star who had recently signed a club-record free with an English Premier League professional team was temporarily suspended Tuesday. Emiliano Sala was en route from Nantes to Wales with two other people aboard when the light aircraft disappeared from radar Monday night off the coast of Guernsey. The 28-year-old had spent the previous hours saying farewell to teammates at the French city’s soccer team after Cardiff City signed him for a club-record fee last week. Sala's last post on Instagram was a picture on Monday with Nantes players alongside a message which translates as "the last goodbye." The search was called off Tuesday for the night after 15 hours. It is expected to resume Wednesday morning. JOURNALIST WHO UNCOVERED CORRUPTION IN AFRICAN SOCCER KILLED BY GUNMEN AFTER POLITICIAN CALLED FOR RETRIBUTION “After all this time, the weather’s quite cold, the water is very cold out there … I am not expecting anyone to be alive,” Channel Islands Air Search chief officer John Fitzgerald told the Associated Press. “We just don’t know how it disappeared at the end of yesterday. It just completely vanished.” Officials said floating objects had been seen in the water, but they were unable to confirm whether they were from the light aircraft. "If they did land on the water," Guernsey Police said, "the chances of survival are at this stage, unfortunately, slim." The aircraft had been flying at 5,000 feet when it contacted Jersey air traffic controllers requesting descent, officials said. The plane was heading for Cardiff Airport, officials told BBC. "We were very shocked upon hearing the news that the plane had gone missing. We expected Emiliano to arrive last night into Cardiff and today was due to be his first day with the team," Cardiff City CEO Ken Choo said in a statement Tuesday. "We continue to pray for positive news," he added. Sala made club history over the weekend when he signed a record three-year, $23.2 million deal to go from FC Nantes, who played in French Ligue 1, to Cardiff City. He was in Cardiff last week to finalize the transfer, which was awaiting international clearance. The Premier League did not respond to questions about whether the transfer had been completed. "I can't wait to start training, meet my new teammates and get down to work," Sala said in a video posted on the club's website. CLICK HERE TO GET THE FOX NEWS APP A powerful and direct player, Sala equaled his career-best total of 12 goals — achieved in the past two seasons with Nantes — in 19 league games this season. He is fifth highest scorer in the French league, one behind Paris Saint-Germain forward Neymar, who is the world's most expensive player. "He was a polite, nice and adorable player who was loved by everybody," Nantes president Waldemar Kita told French TV channel CNews. The Associated Press contributed to this report.