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Rainer Schaller in one of his fitness studios (2020)
Photo: INA FASSBENDER / AFP
There is no longer any hope of making targeted discoveries.
Eleven days after the crash of German businessman Rainer Schaller's private plane off the coast of Costa Rica, the search operation has finally been halted.
No further evidence had been discovered, said the director of the Costa Rican Coast Guard, Martín Arias on Tuesday (local time).
Four of the six people who were on board are still missing.
"We've done everything humanly possible," Arias said.
So far, only the bodies of a child and a man have been found.
It was not initially disclosed who the dead were.
According to Security Minister Jorge Torres, relatives of one of the victims visited the scene of the accident on Tuesday.
McFit founder Schaller, his partner, the two children, another German and the Swiss pilot were on board the private plane at the time of the crash on October 21.
The plane came from Mexico and crashed into the sea near the Caribbean coast of Costa Rica.
The causes of the crash remained unclear.
Communications with the Piaggio P.180 Avanti machine were lost as the plane approached Limón Airport on the Caribbean coast over the sea, local authorities said.
"The plane went off the radar about 25 miles from Limón airport," said Fernando Naranjo, director of the civil aviation authority.
Machine had no flight recorder
Around 60 emergency services were involved in the search.
Some of these had to contend with adverse weather conditions.
In consultation with the authorities of the neighboring country, wreckage was also searched for in Panamanian waters from the air.
The sea currents would also be taken into account in the search, Minister Torres said at the end of October.
The private plane did not have a flight recorder or a device to record communications.
Because of the small size of the aircraft, they were not mandatory, according to the Costa Rican authorities.
jok/dpa