Entrepreneur Rainer Schaller — who founded the company that came to run global brands such as McFIT gym and Gold’s Gym — is possibly among those who were present on a plane, the remains of which have been found near Limón, Costa Rica, per the Associated Press.
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A person by the name of Rainer Schaller was on a list of planned passengers for that flight, the outlet added. It also included “Christiane Schikorsky,” which is the name of Schaller’s girlfriend.
Costa Rica officials said they have found two bodies, one adult, and one child, as well as luggage and chunks of the plane, but that they could not confirm the identities of the deceased immediately.
The plane that potentially carried Schaller originally became unavailable Friday.
“Around six in the afternoon, we received an alert about a flight coming from Mexico to the Limón airport, carrying five German passengers,” Security Minister Jorge Torres said.
Limón is on the eastern coast of Costa Rica, near the Caribbean.
Torres added that officials are searching for bodies off the coast of the country and thought everyone on the plane was a citizen of Germany, but that poor weather had delayed the search momentarily.
RSG Group did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
Who Is Rainer Schaller?
Rainer Schaller founded the first McFit gym in 1997 in Bavaria, Germany. He continued to open locations in Germany and had over 400,000 members across locations by 2006, per the company website. It began to buy up competitors and expand internationally, adding different types and brands of gyms.
In 2020, the parent company renamed RSG Group, purchased Gold’s Gym.
The company says it now has 21 brands, including several focused on creative management and design, and 41,000 employees.
Schaller is the company’s owner, CEO, and founder, per its website.