Rainer Schaller, His Partner and Children Among 6 Missing After Plane Disappears

Six people are missing and feared dead after a small plane crashed off the coast of Costa Rica Saturday. The plane’s passengers reportedly include Rainer Schaller, the German businessman behind RSG Group, which owns the massive McFit and Gold’s Gym fitness studio franchises. All five passengers were German nationals and the pilot was Swiss.

A flight plan for the small plan listed Schaller as a passenger, reports the Associated Press. At least one of the other passengers is thought to be related to Schaller, but authorities have not independently confirmed this. Germany’s Bild is reporting that Schaller’s partner Christiane Schikorsky and their children were on the plane. Another man on the flight was also reportedly a member of Schaller’s family.

The plane was a Piaggio P.180 Avanti, reports DW. It went missing on Friday evening and took off from Palenque, Mexico. It went missing about two hours and 40 minutes later, and never reached Limon, a city on Costa Rica’s Caribbean coast. Costa Rican officials said the plane was found in the water Saturday, about 17 miles off the coast from Limon’s airport. Authorities have reportedly found two bodies, but they had not been identified.

McFit spokeswoman Jeanine Minaty told Bild that Schaller was on the plane. “We don’t know any more at the moment,” she told the outlet.

Schaller founded McFit, which became the largest fitness studio chain in Germany, and is the CEO of its parent company, RSG Group. The chain also has locations in Austria, Italy, Poland, and Spain, and has over 1.4 million members across Europe. In 2020, his company acquired Gold’s Gym, which had filed for bankruptcy during the COVID-19 pandemic.

Schaller also organized the 2010 Love Parade techno music festival in Berlin. The event earned international headlines when a crash killed 21 people and injured over 500 others. Authorities accused Schaller’s security team of failing to stop people from entering the festival grounds even though the situation was already growing tense. Schaller denied allegations of wrongdoing, arguing that his security plans were already approved by the city. Future Love Parade festivals were canceled, although it was revived as “Rave the Planet” earlier this year. Organizers could not use the “Love Parade” name since Schaller still has the rights to the name.