SALON

Saturday, Jan 5, 2013 3:45 PM UTC

Missoni scion on small plane missing in Venezuela

By

Topics: From the Wires,

ROME (AP) — The search resumed Saturday for a small plane that has disappeared off the Venezuelan coast with six people aboard, including Vittorio Missoni, a top executive in Italy’s Missoni fashion house, officials said.

Missoni, 58, is the director general of the iconic brand and the eldest son of the company’s founder. Flying with him on Friday’s flight from Venezuela’s Los Roques resort archipelago to Caracas, was Missoni’s wife, Maurizia Castiglioni, two Italian friends of the couple, and a crew of two Venezuelans.

Italy’s Corriere della Sera newspaper reported that family patriarch Ottavio Missoni, 91, and his wife, Rosita, were at their home in Italy, along with their daughter, Angela, the chief fashion designer and sister of Vittorio Missoni, waiting for information about the search. Italian news reports said the third Missoni sibling, Luca, had flown to Venezuela.

“We have no other news” beyond that the plane went missing, Paolo Marchetti, a Missoni official told reporters as he left company headquarters in the northern Italian town of Sumirago on Saturday afternoon.

Missoni, with its trademark zigzag and other geometric patterns in sweaters, scarves and other knitwear, is one of Italy’s most famous fashion brands abroad. Vittorio Missoni played a key role in marketing the Missoni family creations in Asia, especially in Japan, Hong Kong and South Korea, and he took on the title of general director of marketing of Missoni SpA. He also is responsible for the company’s products in the United States and France.

His elderly parents still play an active role in the family.

On Friday, Venezuela’s Interior Minister Nestor Reverol said the plane was declared missing hours after taking off from Los Roques, a string of islands, cays and islets that is popular for scuba diving, white beaches and coral reefs, where the Missonis and their friends were on vacation.

Revero said the plane had been expected at Simon Bolivar International Airport in Caracas but never arrived.

A first day of searching on Friday yielded nothing.

As the search resumed Saturday, the Italian news agency ANSA, reporting from Rome, said a specialized ocean-searching naval vessel was being deployed.

The Missoni brand is scheduled to display its latest menswear creations on the Milan runways in fashion show later this month.

Next Article

Related Stories

More Related Stories

Featured Slide Shows

The week in 10 pics

close X
  • Share on Twitter
  • Share on Facebook
  • Thumbnails
  • Fullscreen
  • 1 of 11
  • Lisa Montgomery embraces her nephew Thursday after a tornado tore apart her home in Cleburne, Texas. The twister killed six people and destroyed entire swaths of the North Texas town.
    Credit: AP/LM Otero

  • Jack McMahon, the defense attorney for abortion doctor Kermit Gosnell, speaks outside the Criminal Justice Center Philadelphia Tuesday. His client was convicted of killing three babies in his clinic, and will serve multiple life sentences.
    Credit: AP/Matt Rourke

  • A photo taken Monday captures Vice President Joe Biden's response to a Milwaukee second-grader's innovative proposal to end America's epidemic of gun violence. This guy!
    Credit: AP/Jenny Aicher

  • Sen. Rand Paul, R-Ky., flanked by a grouper-eyed Michele Bachmann, addresses the IRS' admission that it targeted Tea Party groups in advance of the 2012 election. In an op-ed for CNN Thursday, the Kentucky senator slammed the president for his faux outrage.
    Credit: AP/Molly Riley

  • Ousted IRS chief Steven Miller is sworn in on Capitol Hill Friday. Miller testified before the House Ways and Means Committee on the extra scrutiny the agency gave conservative groups applying for tax-exempt status.
    Credit: AP/J. Scott Applewhite

  • Attorney General Eric Holder pauses as he testifies on Capitol Hill before the House Judiciary Committee Wednesday. Holder is under fire, among other things, for the Justice Department's gathering of phone records at the Associated Press.
    Credit: AP/Carolyn Kaster

  • O.J. Simpson sits during an evidentiary hearing at Clark County District Court in Las Vegas, Nev., Thursday. Simpson, who is currently serving a nine-to-33-year sentence in state prison for armed robbery and kidnapping, is using a writ of habeas corpus to seek a new trial.
    Credit: AP/Las Vegas Review-Journal/Jeff Scheid

  • Major Tom to ground control: On Sunday astronaut Chris Hadfield recorded the first music video from space, a cover of David Bowie's "Space Oddity."
    Credit: AP/NASA/Chris Hadfield

  • When it rains it pours. President Barack Obama speaks during a news conference Thursday with Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan, inexplicably inspiring an #umbrellagate Twitter meme.
    Credit: AP/Jacquelyn Martin

  • A smoke plume rises high above a road block at the intersection of County A and Ross Road east of Solon Springs, Wis., Tuesday. No injuries were reported, but the the wildfire caused evacuations across northwestern Wisconsin.
    Credit: AP/The Duluth News-Tribune/Clint Austin

  • Recent Slide Shows

  • Share on Twitter
  • Share on Facebook
  • Thumbnails
  • Fullscreen
  • 1 of 11

Related Videos

Comments

 0 Comments

Comment Preview

Your name will appear as username

You may use these HTML tags and attributes: <a href=""> <b> <em> <strong> <i> <blockquote>

follow salon

Most Read

Popular on Reddit

links from salon.com

From Around the Web

Presented by Scribol
listener_new_rect The Listener: So long, Sookie Stackhouse

Recommendations