The owner of Gold’s Gym, Rainer Schaller, his family, and two other people are thought to be dead after the plane they were on Friday crashed off the Caribbean coast of Costa Rica.
The Costa Rican Ministry of Public Security said on Facebook on Friday that a plane flying from Mexico to Limon, Costa Rica, lost contact with the control tower at Costa Rica’s Juan Santamaria International Airport around 6 p.m. local time (8 p.m. ET) while flying over the northeastern Parismina area off the country’s Caribbean coast.
The Public Security Ministry gave CNN a copy of the plane’s passenger list. According to the manifest, Schaller, a German business magnate, was on the private flight with four other Germans and a pilot on Friday. Schaller’s partner, Christiane Schikorsky, and two young Germans were also there.
Martin Arias, the vice president of the Ministry of Public Security, said that the coast guard started looking for the plane in the Caribbean Sea at 5 a.m. local time on Saturday. At 5:50 a.m., the remains of the plane were found 28 kilometers from Limon Airport in Costa Rica.
Arias said that the Red Cross has been asked to help with rescue and search efforts. Jorge Torres Carillo, Costa Rica’s Minister of Public Security, tweeted Saturday that the private plane had a “foreign crew” and that two bodies had been found.
CNN was told by the German Foreign Office that they are aware of the situation and that the German Embassy in San José, the capital of Costa Rica, is in touch with local officials to find out more.
The German Foreign Office said that the embassy is also ready to help the families of the people who were affected. Schaller started and runs the RSG Group, which has fitness studios like McFit, John Reed, and Gold’s Gym.
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