A body has been recovered from the wreckage of the plane carrying Emiliano Sala and David Ibbotson

It was carried out in "as dignified a way as possible"

A body has been recovered from the wreckage of the plane that was carrying footballer Emiliano Sala and pilot David Ibbotson when it crashed into the English Channel, it has been confirmed. The Air Accidents Investigation Branch said specialist contractors joined the operation in "challenging conditions". The recovery of the body was carried out in 'as dignified away as possible', but it has not yet been confirmed whether it is the body of Sala or Ibbotson. The families of both men were kept informed throughout the process. The initial search by Guernsey Police was called off after 24 hours with chances of survival "extremely remote". But a private search, funded by a GoFundMe page and led by marine scientist and oceanographer David Mearns, was launched and found the wreckage just off the coast of Guernsey shortly after commencement. The Piper Malibu N264DB was travelling from France to Wales, where Sala had just signed for Cardiff City. He was travelling to Wales having said his goodbyes to his former FC Nantes teammates. The body that was recovered from the wreckage was being taken to the Isle of Portland to be passed to the Dorset coroner. No details have been released concerning its identification. The AAIB have said efforts to recover the aircraft as a whole were unsuccessful, before being abandoned due to bad weather. "The weather forecast is poor for the foreseeable future and so the difficult decision was taken to bring the overall operation to a close," it said in a statement.