Son of fashion designer Missoni missing after unexplained disappearance of plane in Venezuela The son of one of Italy's most celebrated fashion designers is missing after his small aircraft disappeared in Venezuela. Vittorio Missoni, 58, was enjoying a New Year break with his wife and friends on the palm-fringed islands of Los Roques when their plane lost contact. The plane was last heard of about 10 miles south of the archipelago, while it was flying over the sea. The flight on Friday was supposed to land at Simon Bolivar international airport about 12 miles from Caracas, but never arrived. It took off from Los Roques around 11am and went off the radar half an hour later. Members of the Missoni clan and relatives of the Italian couple on holiday with them were last night still hoping that the plane may have been diverted, and were hurrying back to the family hometown of Sumirago, 30 miles north of Milan. Italian foreign ministry officials said last night that they were working with Venezuelan authorities to conduct both air and sea searches for the plane. According to Venezuela's justice and interior minister Nestor Reverol, the 1968 British twin engine Norman BN2 vanished on Friday while flying from Los Roques, where the Missoni couple had been spending Christmas and New Year at a resort. Mr Missoni had been on a fishing trip with his wife Maurizia Castiglioni, and Italian businessman Guido Foresti and his wife Elda Scalvenzi. The string of 350 islands is known for world-class diving, pristine beaches and coral reefs, and has attracted famous faces such as Leonardo DiCaprio, Shakira and Harrison Ford. The archipelago is scarcely populated but attracts around 70,000 visitors a year - lured by the crystal waters and opportunities to fish for barracuda or dive among the reefs. And Friday's disappearance bears eerie similarities to another accident in the same place, on the same date - January 4 - five years ago. Air and sea searches were called off without finding any sign of the aircraft. In recent days, an Italian gossip magazine Oggi had published transcript of conversations with the control tower that family members have said are proof there were four additional people on board (18 not 14) and theorising that the plane had actually been re-routed by Colombian drug smugglers who would then go on to use the planes for cocaine transport. "It is an incredible coincidence, of the date, but also a number of other strange similarities," said Umberto Brindani, director of Oggi, on Italian television channel Sky24. Mr Missoni's parents Ottavio and Rosita founded their eponymous fashion house in 1958, and earned international recognition for their brightly-coloured "hippy luxe" clothes, often featuring zigzag patterns and sumptuous knitwear in kaleidoscope colours. Last year the Italian-based company - which remains 100 per cent owned by the family - had a turnover of €70 million, with stores in 40 countries and an expanding chain of hotels and homewear. Mr Missoni was the marketing director of the company - working alongside his brother Luca, the creative director, and sister Angela, who designed both women's and men's wear. "Missoni, with its extended, good-looking, wholesome family is the essence of Italian fashion - as the Italians would like to view themselves," wrote fashion journalist Suzy Menkes of the International Herald Tribune in an article to mark the company's 50th anniversary. Angela Missoni's glamorous daughter Margherita returned to the family firm after stints modelling in New York, and now acts as accessory designer and muse - bringing her clan of international jet-set friends into the company's colourful, bohemian folds. In June the 29-year-old married Italian racing driver Eugenio Amos in a Romany-themed celebration in the centuries-old parkland owned by the family north of Milan - complete with acrobats, fortune tellers and painted caravans. Mr Missoni's own parents' courtship was no less romantic. Rosita Missoni, now 81 and in charge of Missoni Home, met Ottavio, now 91, at the 1948 London Olympics - when he was competing in the 400m hurdles. "So when we got married, we decided to start a fashion company," she said earlier this year. We had a 100 sq metre apartment with a 100 sq metre basement, and four knitting machines - not motorised, but hand operated. We started making sweaters for a Milan-based couture house. The business grew and, in 1958, we had a big success with two striped shift dresses. La Rinascente, the most important department store in Milan at the time, put them in their windows and they sold out. Those were the first garments to carry the Missoni label, and we have been Missoni ever since. Mr Missoni has three children with his first wife, Tania: Ottavio, 26, Giacomo, 24, and Marco, 22. His companion for more than a decade, Maurizia Castiglioni, also has two children.