The German entrepreneur and McFit founder Rainer Schaller was on board the plane that crashed off Costa Rica with his family. The spokeswoman for the RSG Group, Jeanine Minaty, confirmed this to the German Press Agency on Monday. "We are shocked, stunned and full of sadness about the tragic accident. The news of the last few days has shaken us deeply and our thoughts are with the relatives in these difficult hours."
Minaty confirmed that Schaller was on board the plane with his family and two other people, including the pilot. "Since the situation is still being investigated on site, we cannot comment further at this time and ask for your understanding."
The plane went missing on a flight from Mexico to Costa Rica on Friday evening. Communications were lost as the plane approached Limón Airport on the Caribbean coast over the sea, the Ministry of Security said. "The plane went off the radar about 25 miles from Limón airport," said Fernando Naranjo, director of the civil aviation authority. The two children of Schaller and his partner were also on board.
Rainer Schaller was born in Bamberg, Bavaria, in 1969 and founded his first fitness studio in Würzburg in 1997. He relied on the discount principle in the fitness sector and created a huge studio chain with McFit. The RSG Group, founded and headed by Schaller, also includes other fitness brands such as John Reed, Gold's Gym and Cyberobics. But Schaller is also active in other areas: the group also includes model agencies and the artist management company Tigerpool, for example.
Schaller also hit the headlines as the rights holder in connection with the Loveparade disaster in Duisburg in 2010, with 21 dead and more than 650 injured. As the head of the organizer company at the time, he was never investigated. In the subsequent criminal proceedings against employees of the city of Duisburg and his company Lopavent, he appeared as a witness. In 2020, the proceedings were discontinued without a verdict - due to presumably insufficient guilt. In court in the spring of 2018, Schaller expressed his condolences to the victims' relatives.
