BY BILL HUTCHINSON
Two international furniture designers from Manhattan were killed when their private plane crashed in Colorado, officials said yesterday.


Sergio Savarese, 48, and Ivan Luini, 46, died when their single-engine Cirrus SR20 plane went down Friday afternoon in Craig, Colo., near the Wyoming border.

Luini’s wife, Micaela Luini, said her husband and Savarese were both experienced pilots who owned the plane together. She said they were returning to New York from a business trip to California.

“He was a great guy,” Micaela Luini said of her husband, president of Kartell U.S., an international furniture manufacturing company. “He was very loved by everybody.”

Officials said high winds and rain may have contributed to the 3 p.m. crash.

In 1989, Savarese and his wife, Monique, founded the Dialogica furniture manufacturing company, which has showrooms in SoHo and Los Angeles. Savarese’s high-end beds, sofas, tables and chairs have been featured in numerous magazines, including In Style and Vogue.

Both Savarese and Ivan Luini were born in Italy and immigrated to New York, where they became friends.

“Flying was his passion,” Micaela Luini said of her husband. “He got his license when he was 17. He had been flying all his life and was a very experienced pilot, and a very cautious pilot.”