Plane crash off Costa Rica: McFit founder missing – rescuers find bodies in the sea

On the way from Mexico to Costa Rica, a small plane suddenly disappears from the radar.

Plane crash off Costa Rica: McFit founder missing – rescuers find bodies in the sea

On the way from Mexico to Costa Rica, a small plane suddenly disappears from the radar. McFit founder Rainer Schaller and his family are on board. Now rescue workers find two bodies and debris in the sea.

When searching for a missing private plane with five German passengers off the coast of Costa Rica, the emergency services discovered two dead. The bodies of an adult and a child were found in the sea, Teletica reported, citing the Ministry of Public Security. Parts of the fuselage, seats and several pieces of luggage had previously been discovered around 28 kilometers from Limon Airport.

The Piaggio P.180 Avanti business jet went missing on Friday evening (local time) on the flight from Mexico to Costa Rica. The Ministry of Security announced that communication was lost when the machine approached Limón Airport over the sea. Due to bad weather conditions, the search had to be temporarily interrupted during the night.

According to information from "Bild", the founder of the fitness studio chain McFit, Rainer Schaller, his girlfriend, their two children and another man are said to have been on board the accident machine. The newspaper reported this, citing the spokeswoman for McFit operator RSG-Group GmbH, Jeanine Minaty. "We don't know any more at the moment," the spokeswoman was quoted as saying.

According to information from Costa Rican media, the machine had departed from the southern Mexican state of Chiapas. At 6:00 p.m. local time (Saturday, 2:00 a.m. CEST) contact with her was lost, said the Costa Rican Minister for Public Safety, Jorge Torres. All measures were then immediately taken to locate the aircraft. According to the Deputy Minister for Public Security, Martín Arias, an operations center has been set up at Limón airport. She is to coordinate the search operation and possible rescue measures.