Lisa Maree Williams/Getty Images for Audi Fashion FestivalVittorio Missoni, commercial and marketing director of the Missoni fashion house, is missing after his plane disappeared in Venezuela on Friday.
The 58-year-old son of the Italian house's founders was on the small plane with five other people, including his wife Maurizia Castiglioni and two longtime friends, when it went off the radar 10 nautical miles after taking off from Los Roques, Venezuela's minister of justice and interior affairs confirmed.
Missoni and Castiglioni were vacationing in Venezuela with four friends, two of whom were on the plane with them.
The plane was headed for an international airport outside Caracas, only about 90 miles away, but never reached its destination. The Venezuelan minister added that a "search and rescue" operation is underway for the plane and its occupants.
"The small plane they were travelling on has disappeared," the Missoni fashion house said in a statement. "This is all the information currently available. We are relying on the work of the Farnesina [Italy's foreign ministry] and all the institutions involved, to whom we are grateful for the prompt activities in the research. As more information becomes available the company will issue further statements."
—Additional reporting by Marcus Mulick