- To continue his series on the one year of the death of Emiliano Sala, 20 Minutes offers the testimony of four people whose lives changed this January 21, 2019
- Josette, John, Pierrick, and Jean-Pierre were all affected in one way or another by the disappearance of the Argentinian.
No need to look very far, the memories are still there, intact, ready to resurface. Like that little thrill in the back that makes itself felt as soon as the name of Emiliano Sala is pronounced. 20 Minutes gathered the testimony of four people who, in one way or another, played an important role in the hours following the announcement of the disappearance of the plane.
John Fitzgerald, head of research operations at the Guernsey site; Josette, a resident of Surtainville, on the Normandy coast, who discovered a cushion from the Piper Malibu in which the Argentinian and Dave Ibbotson flew; Pierrick Landais, close friend since the player's arrival in France in 2010; Jean-Pierre Clavier, administrator of the association "A la nantaise", at the origin of the spontaneous gathering in the center of Nantes on January 22 in the evening. These few days will remain engraved in their memory. They tell us about them.
Pierrick Landais, one of Sala's good friends in the Bordeaux region
“We celebrated Christmas at my parents' house in Cholet on December 23. And then I had been to see him again before January 1 at a training session at la Jonelière. I got it on Monday evening, by message. We were discussing his departure, he told me that he had managed to organize everything, that he had gone to Nicolas Palloi, that he had left the dog there and that he was going to leave the same evening. He was scheduled to do his first training in Cardiff on Tuesday. We decided to call each other that day to find out how it all went. I still have these messages on my phone.
I learned of the plane's disappearance through an alert on my phone while I was in a meeting at work. My first thought is "there must be a mistake". I immediately called Marcelo [Vada, Valentin's father, a former Bordeaux player and also a close friend]. I ask him if he is aware, he tells me that he is not. Then I join Sergio [Alfonsin, former pro footballer living in Gironde for 30 years and originally from Santa Fe like Sala]. We didn't know what to say, except that it was not possible. We always hold on to hope, even if we know that when we fall into the water like that, it is more than thin. I had this hope, yes. All of Tuesday, and Wednesday.
The following days, I remember that I was bad ... very, very bad. Sergio arrived on Tuesday evening, we ate together. He knows his mother, brother and sister very well. I saw them too, here in Langon, we had a birthday of Emiliano once all together (when he played in Bordeaux), they had come on purpose. We think about all this, it's very hard.
Initially he did not want to go to Cardiff. I remember, he went to play in Nîmes in January [the 16th]. I had had him then, he didn't want to leave. And then we put a little pressure on him, and by force, he conditioned to leave. In the end, he was happy. The Friday before [the 18th], he announced to me that he was going to sign. In his head, it was good.
In the days following his disappearance, we were suspended from the news. I could not afford to have other sources. We participated, with all our friends from Langon, in the kitty to be able to continue the research. It was the minimum we could do. When we learned that the research had stopped, we said to ourselves that it was not possible, that it could not end like that. We had to know.
The discovery of the wreckage was a relief. We already know that he did not stay at the bottom of the ocean, and that is a good thing. We thought it was good for the family to be able to recover Emiliano's body. It was a calming, at least for a while. It allows you to grieve. It took me a long time to get over it. Several months. I still think about it regularly. Sometimes unwittingly, we look at news sites, and then we come across photos of Emiliano. I was aware that the date [of one year] was coming because it was two days before my niece's birthday. I will always remember it anyway. "
John Fitzgerald, Chief Operating Officer of Channel Islands Airs Search (the voluntary aerial search service in the waters of the Channel Islands).
“The memory that I keep of these days of research is first of all the weather. It was very cold and there was a lot of wind. When we received the alert announcing the crash of an airplane at sea, we wasted no time. We took off and we were at the last known position 38 minutes later. The air temperature was 4 ° C, that of the sea about 7 ° C, with force 6 winds and very strong tides. It is already very difficult to carry out a forced ditching when the conditions are good, so in these conditions, at night ... We focused on finding lights on life jackets and rafts, but knowing these waters well, we knew that there were most likely no survivors.
We realized that this story was not like the others only the next day, when we saw all the speculation in the media and also the number of planes requisitioned for research. We were one of nine aircraft in the area, but the only one to have searched during the three days. Pressure is always there when a plane crashes, especially at this time of year, when survival times are very low. The strongest was on the pilot of our aircraft, who had to constantly keep abreast of the positions of the other planes present in the area.
I often think back to this story. And then we discuss it among ourselves, during our training sessions. This is a good case study, with many research agencies that had to work together, the distribution of flights between the planes, the allocated research areas, communications. Also, it was research that got a lot of media attention and we discussed how best to handle it. "
Jean-Pierre Clavier, administrator of the association "A la nantaise", at the origin of the spontaneous gathering in tribute to Sala in the center of Nantes on Tuesday January 22, 2019 in the evening
“On Tuesday, after a few exchanges between members of the association, we had the idea of a tribute. Someone from here said that we had to get together and do something public. There was a symbolic place of the city which was essential: the Place Royale. When we launch the information on social networks, we have a fear, it is that people think that we record the death of the player, who is at that time only missing. There was a real need to come together, to pour out a little. The people of Nantes are used to meeting in moments of victory. They could also do it for other, sadder moments… There were a lot of flowers. We were there all a little distraught. There had been a real movement which made us collectively realize that something had happened.
It seemed so crazy ... There were a lot of people. That evening, we see the supporter as a member of his family. I also remember those people who passed on the street wondering what was going on and who learned the information at that time. Something started that night and then built up. The song we hear in tribute to Sala in the 9th minute of the FCN games was sung for the first time at Place Royale. "
Josette, a resident of Surtainville, on the Normandy coast, who discovered a cushion from the Piper Malibu
“I didn't expect this madness at all after my discovery. It created a huge buzz! After hanging up with you [20 Minutes had managed to identify her as the one who had found this debris], it did not stop in the afternoon, until 10:30 p.m. I felt a little overwhelmed, with no time to breathe. It was a little quieter from the next morning, there were scheduled meetings with the journalists, so I mastered a little more. But it lasted almost a week, anyway.
I have told my story dozens and dozens of times. I even made films for Argentinian media with my phone. School friends, whom I had not seen since 1979, recognized me on television and resumed contact with me. German tourists I met last summer told me about it, and I know that I was seen as far as China. And we still talk about it often here. That's crazy. This story still changed my life.
The walker who discovered the cushion "most likely" belonging to Sala's plane testifies at @ 20Minuteshttps: //t.co/6O53SFO6wv pic.twitter.com/HhuwzCTzvt
- J.Laloye / N.Beunaiche (@Zonemixte) January 30, 2019I think about it very often. I'm going for a walk on the beach, and yes, it reminds me of him, of Emiliano. Again yesterday and the day before yesterday evening [last Monday and Tuesday] we had some wind, I say to myself "ah we may still find a piece of a plane. Is there any left?". I followed the rest of this story, the cessation of research, the discovery of the wreckage, everything. And I'm still interested in it. I'm touched. I found it amazing that you could fly like that, apparently without checking too much. I didn't understand what Emiliano did, and I'm still wondering. I got interested in him, I read a lot about him, he was a sensible person. I would have liked to find an answer. Why did he agree to take off? He didn't seem to trust.
I tell myself that I did something good, that I served something. I'm glad that I was able to get things done at my level and perhaps participated in the fact that we are relaunching research to find the plane. I'm sorry, moreover, that we couldn't find the pilot's body. For his family ... They did not find anyone. It's hard. "
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