The well-known entrepreneur Rainer Schaller, founder of the McFit gym chain, is dead. McFit announced this on Friday via his Instagram account. According to this, the Costa Rican authorities have identified the two bodies that have only been recovered so far as Schaller and his son. The entrepreneur’s private plane crashed near the Caribbean coast on October 21 for unknown reasons. In addition to Schaller himself, his partner, the two children, another German and the Swiss pilot were on board the machine.
“It is with great dismay that we have received the sad certainty that our founder Rainer Schaller and his son have been identified as having died in the plane crash in Costa Rica. His partner, her daughter, one of our colleagues and the pilot, who were also on board, are in custody continues to be among the missing,” the statement said.
It was only on Tuesday that the authorities stopped searching for the missing persons after eleven days – only two of the five passengers had been found. “We have done everything humanly possible,” said Costa Rican Coast Guard Director Martín Arias. According to the Costa Rican authorities, the private plane that had taken off from southern Mexico crashed on the way to the airport in Limón province after contact with it was lost.
Schaller founded the McFit fitness chain in the 1990s and had become a millionaire with the studios. Later he also organized the Loveparade techno party.
Sources: Instagram account McFit; dpa / AFP