Jan. 12, 2009 (Jane Sutton - Reuters)
MIAMI (Reuters) - A pilot wanted on financial fraud charges parachuted out of his plane over Alabama and allowed the aircraft to crash in neighboring Florida in an apparent attempt to fake his death, sheriff's investigators said on Monday.
Authorities launched a manhunt for the pilot, who survived and checked into an Alabama hotel, and then fled, the Santa Rosa County, Florida, sheriff's office said.
The pilot, identified as Marcus Schrenker, 38, was the only person aboard the plane that took off for Florida on Sunday from Anderson, Indiana.
Over Alabama, the pilot made a bogus emergency call, saying the plane's windshield had imploded and he was bleeding profusely. He then put the plane on autopilot and parachuted out, investigators said.
Military jets were scrambled to aid the plane, a Piper PA-46 Turbo Prop, and the military pilots noticed the Piper's door was open. They followed the empty plane to northwest Florida, where it crashed on Sunday night near the city of Milton, in a swampy area within a few hundred yards of some houses, said Sgt. Scott Haines of Santa Rosa County Sheriff's office.
A man believed to be the pilot approached police near the Alabama city of Harpersville on Sunday night, wet up to the knees and seeking help. He told them he had been in a canoe accident, showed them a drivers license identifying him as Schrenker and was taken by police to a hotel, investigators said. more...
AntiSpin: Why, oh, why didn't he explain that the knee high mud resulted from his untimely fall to earth from the fourth dimension in a desperate bid to escape the gravitational forces of teraspace with his investors' hard earned savings, at great risk to his own personal safety?
Too bad. Then he could have explained to his investors "Energy reduces much faster in teraspace with distance than in the 3rd dimension, so both light and sound are weaker. Much more things can be compacted into a small space, such as your money, and its much easier to get lost."
Instead his investors will likely hang around outside his government paid for hotel room with their lawyers, in the same dark dimension of reality as the rest of us.
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