SAN JOSE, Costa Rica (AP) — The RSG Group of gym outlets, including Gold’s Gym and McFit, confirmed Monday that founder and CEO Rainer Schaller, family and friends were aboard a small plane that disappeared from radar just off Costa Rica’s Caribbean coast.
The company issued a statement confirming that Rainer Schaller, “his family, and two other people were on board the aircraft at the time of the crash.”
Former Lopavent CEO Rainer Schaller (R) attends his hearing of the Love Parade trial at the CCD-East (Congress Center Duesseldorf) on May 22, 2018, in Dusseldorf, Germany. (Friedemann Vogel – Pool/Getty Images)OL
The company did not confirm his death, despite the fact searchers have found two bodies, luggage and pieces of the aircraft in the sea.
“We are shocked, stunned, and full of grief about this tragic accident,” the RSG statement read. “The news during the last few days has shaken us deeply, and our thoughts are with the family in these difficult hours.”
“As the situation is currently still being investigated on-site, we cannot comment further at this time and ask for your understanding.”
Rainer Schaller of McFIT Global Group GmbH (R) and Wladimir Klitschko are talking during to the Klitschko Launch-Event at Elbphilharmonie on June 7, 2017, in Hamburg, Germany. (Selim Sudheimer/Bongarts/Getty Images)
Schaller is listed as “Founder, Owner and CEO of the RSG Group,” a conglomerate of 21 fitness, lifestyle and fashion brands that operates in 48 countries and has 41,000 employees, either directly or through franchises.
On Sunday, Costa Rica’s Security Ministry said the bodies of one adult and one child had been found at a site about 17 miles (28 kilometers) off the coast from the Limon airport, but said the bodies had not yet been identified.