Emiliano Sala's tragic flight across the Channel would have been like flying in Antarctica in winter, an aeronautical expert has claimed.
Commander Jorge Polanco told Argentinian network TyC Sports of the conditions posed by crossing at night during a bad European winter.
The Piper PA-46 Malibu carrying Sala from Nantes back to new club Cardiff went missing at 8:30pm and a search for the aircraft was suspended overnight.
New details are continuing to emerge surrounding the incident, with harrowing audio released in which Sala expressed fear to his friends that the plane was "falling apart" and reports the plane took four attempts to take off.
And Polanco has revealed he believes the it would have been "like flying in Antarctica in winter".
Polanco said: "The Piper Malibu is an excellent single-engine aircraft , which has the capacity for seven people, but I am very surprised that they have been doing this operation flying at night, with what is the European winter at the moment."
He added: "It's like flying in Antarctica in the winter with an airplane of that size, which can suffer from what is called icing, thus stopping the engine and I think something related to that has happened."