Private investigators said late on Sunday that they had found the wreckage of a plane that went down over the English Channel on January 21. The aircraft had been carrying Argentine footballer Emiliano Sala and pilot David Ibbotson.

"I can confirm it has been found," a spokesperson for Britain's Air Accidents Investigation Branch said.

Speaking on Monday morning, investigators said that, using a Remotely Operated Vehicle, they had seen one body in the aircraft.

The Piper PA-46 Malibu airplane had been en route to Cardiff in Wales from Nantes, France. It disappeared around 8:30 pm local time, about 13 kilometers (8 miles) northwest of the island of Alderney.

The plane was built in 1984 and had last received a certificate of airworthiness in 2015. Investigators have said there were some questions about Ibbotson's pilot's license, which may not have permitted him to carry passengers for profit.

'No hope'

An official search for the plane began shortly after the plane's disappearance. It was suspended on January 24, after the Channel Islands Air Search said there was "no hope" of finding survivors. A private search organized by Sala's family and paid for by crowdfunding was launched two days later.

On Wednesday, debris from the plane washed ashore on the Normandy coastline.

Sala, 28, was born in Cululu, Argentina. He had spent his professional career in France before being signed by Welsh club Cardiff City. He had been leaving Nantes to start his tenure in Wales when he boarded the flight.

es/bw (AFP, Reuters)