Desperate relatives of missing Premier League footballer Emiliano Sala have chartered a special flight to view the area the plane he was in disappeared over the English Channel.

The group of family and friends travelled on a twin-engine Dornier 228-212 plane which flew from Guernsey Airport and circled the island of Alderney on Monday, a week after the plane Sala was in dropped off the radar.

Sala’s relatives and friends, including his mother Mercedes and sister Romina, travelled in a plane operated by Guernsey airline Aurigny.

They made no comment to reporters as they returned to the terminal building at Guernsey Airport.

In a statement, the airline said: “Aurigny can confirm that we operated a commercial scenic flight service this morning out of Guernsey which flew to the west of Alderney and around Alderney before returning to Guernsey.”

The 28-year-old Argentinian striker was on a Piper PA-46 Malibu, with British pilot David Ibbotson, which disappeared on January 21, just days after he signed for Cardiff City from FC Nantes in a record £15m deal.

The plane had left Nantes in France for Cardiff at 7.15pm last Monday and after requesting to descend, lost contact with Jersey air traffic control over the English Channel.

An official search operation was called off on Thursday as Guernsey’s harbour master Captain David Barker said the chances of survival after such a long period are “extremely remote”.

Shipwreck hunting expert David Mearns is understood to be assisting the family in a private search.

US-born Mearns is a marine scientist, author and explorer based in the UK, who claims to have located 24 major shipwrecks during his career.

It was reported last week that Ibbotson’s pilot’s licence will form part of the investigation into the plane’s disappearance.