Plane carrying six including fitness mogul Rainer Schaller crashes near Costa Rica
Authorities survey wreckage after aircraft carrying German gym entrepreneur and five others went missing
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Your support makes all the difference.Authorities in Costa Rica are surveying wreckage from a plane crash after a small aircraft that was believed to be carrying five German nationals, including international fitness mogul Rainer Schaller, went missing on Friday.
A twin-engine turboprop plan was found on Saturday, according to officials.
According to authorities, the charter plane passenger list included Mr Schaller, the founder of an international chain of fitness centres, including McFit, John Reed and Gold’s Gym. Five other German nationals and a Swiss pilot were also believed to be on board. All are feared dead.
German newspaper Bild reported that Mr Schaller’s partner Christiane Schikorsky and their two children also were on the plane en route to Mexico.
Costa Rica security minister Martin Arias said no bodies have been recovered from the site of the wreckage in the Caribbean Sea, roughly 17 miles (28 kilometers) from the coast of the Limon airport.
The plane, a Piaggio P180 Avanti, went missing roughly two hours and 41 minutes after leaving Palenque, Mexico, when it lost communication with the control tower in Limon.
A search was suspended overnight due to weather, according to Costa Rica’s public security minister Jorge Torres.
Mr Schaller is founder and CEO of RSG Group, which owns McFit, John Reed, and Gold’s Gym, which he purchased after the company filed for bankruptcy in 2020. McFit is the largest gym chain in Germany, with locations in Autria, Italy, Poland and Spain.
The entrepreneur also helped organise the 2010 Berlin Love Parade festival, where 21 people were killed and dozens injured and suffocated as a crowd pushed into a tunnel leading into the festival area.
Authorities claimed Mr Schaller’s security team had failed to mitigate the size and flow of the crowd, though Mr Schaller also blamed police mistakes. The festival was not been held since the incident.
The Independent requested comment from RSG.
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