Wreckage from ill-fated Missoni plane recovered

CARACAS: Venezuelan authorities Monday recovered the wreckage of the plane that crashed in the Caribbean with Italian fashion heir Vittorio Missoni, his wife and several others.

The fuselage from the aircraft carrying Missoni, his wife Maurizia Castiglioni, another Italian couple and two crew members was brought to the surface of the ocean, Attorney General Luisa Ortega said in a Twitter message.

The small plane, which vanished off the Venezuelan coast in January, was found in June in about 80 meters (240 feet) of water, north of the Caribbean archipelago of Los Roques. Divers retrieved the remains from the wrecked plane last month and are still in the process of identifying all the victims, officials said.

Missoni, 58, the son of the eponymous fashion labels founder Ottavio Missoni, was the fashion houses marketing director.

The elder Missoni, a knitwear innovator whose distinctive colorful zigzag designs became a global fashion empire, died aged 92 on May 9 in his home and company headquarters in the northern Italian town of Sumirago.