Vittorio Missoni, director of Italy's Missoni fashion house, plane missing off coast of Venezuela

(CNN) -- A small plane carrying six people, one of them believed to be Vittorio Missoni, a director of Italy's Missoni fashion house, is missing off the coast of Venezuela, Interior Minister Nestor Reverol Torres said.

The plane was carrying four Italian nationals who were on vacation, he said in a statement Friday.

The Venezuelan Interior Ministry identified the Italians as Vittorio Missoni, his wife Maurizia Castiglioni, Guido Foresti and Elda Scalveuzi. A pilot and co-pilot also were on board.

Italy's ANSA news agency reported that the Vittorio Missoni on the plane is the son of Missoni fashion house founders Ottavio and Rosita Missoni.

Vittorio Missoni, 58, runs the company with his siblings, Luca and Angela.

The plane left Los Roques, an archipelago and resort, bound for the international airport outside Caracas, about 90 miles away, Reverol said. Search and rescue teams were sent to the area to hunt for the missing aircraft, he said.

A spokesman in the Italian Foreign Ministry's media office confirmed that four Italians had been reported missing Friday night in Venezuela but declined to identify them.

The Italian authorities are in touch with their Venezuelan counterparts and the families of those missing, the spokesman said.

The Italian Foreign Ministry has called on the Venezuelan authorities to do all they can to locate the missing plane and those on board, he said.