The Missoni company announced today that the crashed plane of Italian fashion icon Vittorio Missoni has been found in the waters north of the Los Roques Archipelago.
The Missoni family and Venezuelan authorities had been searching for the plane since it went missing shortly after it took off from the coast of Venezuela on Jan. 4. It was carrying two crew members and four Italian tourists, including Missoni, the 58-year-old CEO of his family’s fashion company.
The fashion house told Page Six in a statement, “On behalf of the Missoni, Castiglioni, Foresti, and Scalvenzi families, it is confirmed that the airplane number YV615BN-2A, which disappeared on January 4th 2013 with Vittorio Missoni, Maurizia Castiglioni, Guido Foresti, Elda Scalvenzi, pilot Hernan Jose’ Marchan and co-pilot Juan Carlos Ferrer Milano on board, has been found.”
The plane was identified on the fifth day of the search mission, thanks to the technology of the American oceanographic ship, the Deep Sea.
The statement continued, “The families thank the Venezuelan Government and the Italian Government for the effort in having made this search possible, and they are confident that the investigation will follow through to the ascertainment of the causes and the responsibility for the accident.”
Page Six reported in January that the family had been demanding to know why the plane was 44 years old — one of the oldest Islanders still flying in the world — and has had mechanical problems in the past.