2009-01-13 09:32:19
A US businessman facing financial problems has apparently faked his own death
by bailing out of his plane and letting it crash in a Florida swamp.
A rescue operation was launched when Marcus Schrenker made a distress call
saying his plane's windscreen had imploded and he was bleeding.
Mr Schrenker, 38, is still missing, but thought to be alive and well.
His financial management companies are reportedly under investigation and he
owes $500,000 to an insurance company.
Police think the financial advisor may have parachuted from the plane before it
crashed.
Running for the woods
Mr Schrenker was the only person aboard the single engine Piper plane that took
off for Florida on Sunday from Anderson, Indiana.
When the authorities received a distress call from the pilot as he flew over
Alabama, a rescue operation was launched.
Two military planes were scrambled and they found Mr Schrenker's plane flying
on autopilot, with its door open and no sign of the pilot.
The plane then crashed in a swampy area near Milton, Florida, close to several
homes.
But investigators said the wreckage showed no signs of blood or a smashed
windshield.
The sheriff's office in Santa Rosa County - where the plane crashed - said the
pilot appeared to have intentionally abandoned his plane.
A man with Mr Shrenker's identification apparently checked into a hotel in
Alabama after the crash, telling police he had been in a canoeing accident,
before being seen running away into some nearby woods.