Pilot reported severe turbulence, then reported the windshield had imploded and was bleeding badly. The aircraft crashed minutes later, the pilot has not been located at the crash site.
News Story;
A plane crashed Sunday night in a wooded, swampy area in East Milton.
The plane, a nonmilitary craft, was found in an area near Lakeside Court and Lakeside Drive that can only be accessed by air or by water, Santa Rosa County Sheriff's Sgt. Scott Haines said.
"They have not located the pilot," Haines said.
The single-engine Piper PA46 was about a 100 yards behind a residence on Lakeside Drive.
A search for the pilot continued early today.
The pilot reported that his plane's windshield had imploded, and he was bleeding badly, Santa County spokeswoman Joy Tsubooka said in a statement late Sunday.
Communication with the pilot was then lost, and a military aircraft was sent to search for the aircraft, Tsubooka said.
The military aircraft witnessed the Piper go down about one mile north of Peter Prince Airport in Santa Rosa County, Tsubooka said.
The plane, which was registered to Indianapolis-based Heritage Aircraft LLC, was bound for Destin. It had taken off Sunday from Anderson, Ind.
The Birmingham News reported the plane was flying near Huntsville, Ala., when the pilot reported severe turbulence.
The plane's pilot was incapacitated while flying over Alabama, and the plane likely was on autopilot until it crashed, according to a Federal Aviation Administration official quoted by the newspaper.
The crash was reported at 9:21 p.m.
Emergency vehicles lined Lakeside Court. About 20 Santa Rosa County deputies were there, residents said.
"My gosh," said Betty Hyatt, 73, who lives on Lakeside Court. "My word. There must be a dozen lighted vehicles of all kinds."
An Escambia County Sheriff's Office helicopter was dispatched to the area to help search for the plane.
People who live along Lakeside Court stood outside late Sunday trying to see what was going on.
"There is really nothing to see," Lakeside Court resident Timothy Viau said. "It's off in the woods. If you came out here with a camera, there is nothing you are going to see."
The FAA was expected to arrive in East Milton today to investigate.
News Link
FlightAware Flight Tracker
Remember the mental furball that tried to fake his death?
Moderators: lilfssister, North Shore, sky's the limit, sepia, Sulako, I WAS Birddog
Re: PA-46-500TP - severe turbulence, window implodes, crash, pil
Pilot spotted alive after crash, authorities sayStory Highlights
(CNN) -- A pilot who made a distress call to air traffic controllers before his plane crashed in Florida was spotted alive Monday and checked into a hotel under a false name, authorities said.
The Piper PA-36 crashed in a swampy area near Milton, Florida, authorities said.
"All indications now are that he made some type of false emergency call [and] abandoned the plane by parachute," said Sgt. Scott Haines of the Santa Rosa County, Florida, Sheriff's Office.
Haines said the pilot -- who has not been publicly identified -- checked into a hotel in the Harpersville, Alabama, area under a false name. Haines did not know the whereabouts of the pilot.
"I do not believe they have him in custody," he said.
Earlier Monday, federal investigators said they believed the pilot may have parachuted out of the Piper PA-36 aircraft before it crashed at 9:15 p.m. CT Sunday in a swampy area of Blackwater River in East Milton, Florida.
Military jets found the aircraft Sunday. The plane was lying upside down, its door open and the cockpit empty, according to Haines.
Kathleen Bergen, spokeswoman for the Federal Aviation Administration, said a "detailed review of radar data" and the fact that the plane had switched to autopilot suggested that the pilot might have parachuted.
The pilot was the only person aboard, authorities said.
On Sunday evening, the pilot contacted air traffic controllers and told them the plane's windshield had imploded and that he was bleeding profusely, Haines said.
That call came in when the aircraft was about 35 miles southwest of Birmingham, Alabama. Controllers tried to tell the pilot to divert the flight to Pell City, Alabama, but he did not respond. The plane appeared to have been put on autopilot around 2,000 feet, Haines said.
The plane was scheduled to land in Destin, Florida, authorities said.
Military jets that first spotted the wreckage described the cockpit as empty. Bergen said the cockpit was mostly intact and the door to the aircraft was open.
The corporate plane does not have an ejection feature, and the pilot did not have a parachute when he took off Sunday from Anderson Municipal Airport in Anderson, Indiana, airport manager Steve Darlington told CNN.
Darlington described the pilot as "accomplished" and said he owns "a couple of airplanes" and flies regularly.
Helicopters, planes, boats, and dogs and rescue crews were involved in searching the area.
http://www.cnn.com/2009/US/01/12/florid ... index.html
(CNN) -- A pilot who made a distress call to air traffic controllers before his plane crashed in Florida was spotted alive Monday and checked into a hotel under a false name, authorities said.
The Piper PA-36 crashed in a swampy area near Milton, Florida, authorities said.
"All indications now are that he made some type of false emergency call [and] abandoned the plane by parachute," said Sgt. Scott Haines of the Santa Rosa County, Florida, Sheriff's Office.
Haines said the pilot -- who has not been publicly identified -- checked into a hotel in the Harpersville, Alabama, area under a false name. Haines did not know the whereabouts of the pilot.
"I do not believe they have him in custody," he said.
Earlier Monday, federal investigators said they believed the pilot may have parachuted out of the Piper PA-36 aircraft before it crashed at 9:15 p.m. CT Sunday in a swampy area of Blackwater River in East Milton, Florida.
Military jets found the aircraft Sunday. The plane was lying upside down, its door open and the cockpit empty, according to Haines.
Kathleen Bergen, spokeswoman for the Federal Aviation Administration, said a "detailed review of radar data" and the fact that the plane had switched to autopilot suggested that the pilot might have parachuted.
The pilot was the only person aboard, authorities said.
On Sunday evening, the pilot contacted air traffic controllers and told them the plane's windshield had imploded and that he was bleeding profusely, Haines said.
That call came in when the aircraft was about 35 miles southwest of Birmingham, Alabama. Controllers tried to tell the pilot to divert the flight to Pell City, Alabama, but he did not respond. The plane appeared to have been put on autopilot around 2,000 feet, Haines said.
The plane was scheduled to land in Destin, Florida, authorities said.
Military jets that first spotted the wreckage described the cockpit as empty. Bergen said the cockpit was mostly intact and the door to the aircraft was open.
The corporate plane does not have an ejection feature, and the pilot did not have a parachute when he took off Sunday from Anderson Municipal Airport in Anderson, Indiana, airport manager Steve Darlington told CNN.
Darlington described the pilot as "accomplished" and said he owns "a couple of airplanes" and flies regularly.
Helicopters, planes, boats, and dogs and rescue crews were involved in searching the area.
http://www.cnn.com/2009/US/01/12/florid ... index.html
Re: PA-46-500TP - severe turbulence, window implodes, crash, pil
Plenty of hull insurance can do that, in an economic downturn.
Re: PA-46-500TP - severe turbulence, window implodes, crash, pil
What a weird, poorly planned out scheme.
Re: PA-46-500TP - severe turbulence, window implodes, crash, pil
Lol. People are awesome.
Re: PA-46-500TP - severe turbulence, window implodes, crash, pil
An update...
http://www.cnn.com/2009/US/01/12/florid ... topstories
(CNN) -- The pilot who signaled air traffic controllers that his windshield had imploded and that he was bleeding before his plane crashed faked the call and later checked into a hotel using a false name Monday, authorities said.
The Piper PA-36 aircraft crashed Sunday night near Milton, Florida, authorities say.
Authorities identified the pilot as Marcus Schrenker, 38, from Indiana. Authorities say they are looking for him.
"All indications now are that he made some type of false emergency call [and] abandoned the plane by parachute," said Sgt. Scott Haines of the Santa Rosa County, Florida, Sheriff's Office.
Haines said the pilot checked into a hotel in the Harpersville, Alabama, area under a false name.
Harpersville is 30 minutes east of Birmingham, Alabama, and about 223 miles north of Milton, Florida, near where the wrecked plane was found. iReport.com: Are you near the crash scene? Tell us what you've seen
Haines did not know the whereabouts of the pilot.
"I do not believe they have him in custody," he said.
Santa Rosa County Sheriff's Office got a call at 2:26 a.m. from the Childersburg Police Department in Alabama saying that a white male, identified as Schrenker by his Indiana driver's license, approached a Childersburg officer at a store.
Schrenker, who was wet from the knees down and had no injuries, told the officer that he had been in a canoeing accident with friends, the Santa Rosa Sheriff's Office said in a news release. Schrenker had goggles that looked like they were made for "flying," according to the release.
The Childersburg police didn't know about the plane crash, so they took Schrenker to a nearby hotel, authorities said. When police found out about the crash, they went back to the hotel and entered Schrenker's room. He was not there, they said.
According to Santa Rosa authorities, Schrenker had checked in under a fake name, paid for his room in cash and "put on a black toboggan cap and ran into the woods located next to the hotel."
CNN could not immediately reach a representative for Schrenker. The phone number listed for his business address was disconnected. He does not have a home phone number listed.
He is listed online as president of an Indianapolis agency called Heritage Wealth Management, but no contact information for that agency was available. The address of the business is the same as the address associated with Schrenker's aircraft in aviation records.
Police in Harpersville told CNN they had no immediate comment. Federal investigators were helping in the probe.
Earlier Monday, federal investigators said they believed the pilot may have parachuted out of the Piper PA-36 aircraft before it crashed at 9:15 p.m. CT Sunday in a swampy area of Blackwater River in East Milton, Florida.
Military jets found the aircraft Sunday. The plane was lying upside down, its door open and the cockpit empty, according to Haines.
Kathleen Bergen, spokeswoman for the Federal Aviation Administration, said a "detailed review of radar data" and the fact that the plane had switched to autopilot suggested that the pilot might have parachuted.
The pilot was the only person aboard, authorities said.
On Sunday evening, the pilot contacted air traffic controllers and told them the plane's windshield had imploded and that he was bleeding profusely, Haines said.
That call came in when the aircraft was about 35 miles southwest of Birmingham, Alabama. Controllers tried to tell the pilot to divert the flight to Pell City, Alabama, but he did not respond. The plane appeared to have been put on autopilot around 2,000 feet, Haines said.
The plane was scheduled to land in Destin, Florida, authorities said.
Military jets that first spotted the wreckage described the cockpit as empty. Bergen said the cockpit was mostly intact and the door to the aircraft was open.
The corporate plane does not have an ejection feature, and the pilot did not have a parachute when he took off Sunday from Anderson Municipal Airport in Anderson, Indiana, airport manager Steve Darlington told CNN.
Darlington described the pilot as "accomplished" and said he owns "a couple of airplanes" and flies regularly.
Helicopters, planes, boats, and dogs and rescue crews were involved in searching the area.
http://www.cnn.com/2009/US/01/12/florid ... topstories
(CNN) -- The pilot who signaled air traffic controllers that his windshield had imploded and that he was bleeding before his plane crashed faked the call and later checked into a hotel using a false name Monday, authorities said.
The Piper PA-36 aircraft crashed Sunday night near Milton, Florida, authorities say.
Authorities identified the pilot as Marcus Schrenker, 38, from Indiana. Authorities say they are looking for him.
"All indications now are that he made some type of false emergency call [and] abandoned the plane by parachute," said Sgt. Scott Haines of the Santa Rosa County, Florida, Sheriff's Office.
Haines said the pilot checked into a hotel in the Harpersville, Alabama, area under a false name.
Harpersville is 30 minutes east of Birmingham, Alabama, and about 223 miles north of Milton, Florida, near where the wrecked plane was found. iReport.com: Are you near the crash scene? Tell us what you've seen
Haines did not know the whereabouts of the pilot.
"I do not believe they have him in custody," he said.
Santa Rosa County Sheriff's Office got a call at 2:26 a.m. from the Childersburg Police Department in Alabama saying that a white male, identified as Schrenker by his Indiana driver's license, approached a Childersburg officer at a store.
Schrenker, who was wet from the knees down and had no injuries, told the officer that he had been in a canoeing accident with friends, the Santa Rosa Sheriff's Office said in a news release. Schrenker had goggles that looked like they were made for "flying," according to the release.
The Childersburg police didn't know about the plane crash, so they took Schrenker to a nearby hotel, authorities said. When police found out about the crash, they went back to the hotel and entered Schrenker's room. He was not there, they said.
According to Santa Rosa authorities, Schrenker had checked in under a fake name, paid for his room in cash and "put on a black toboggan cap and ran into the woods located next to the hotel."
CNN could not immediately reach a representative for Schrenker. The phone number listed for his business address was disconnected. He does not have a home phone number listed.
He is listed online as president of an Indianapolis agency called Heritage Wealth Management, but no contact information for that agency was available. The address of the business is the same as the address associated with Schrenker's aircraft in aviation records.
Police in Harpersville told CNN they had no immediate comment. Federal investigators were helping in the probe.
Earlier Monday, federal investigators said they believed the pilot may have parachuted out of the Piper PA-36 aircraft before it crashed at 9:15 p.m. CT Sunday in a swampy area of Blackwater River in East Milton, Florida.
Military jets found the aircraft Sunday. The plane was lying upside down, its door open and the cockpit empty, according to Haines.
Kathleen Bergen, spokeswoman for the Federal Aviation Administration, said a "detailed review of radar data" and the fact that the plane had switched to autopilot suggested that the pilot might have parachuted.
The pilot was the only person aboard, authorities said.
On Sunday evening, the pilot contacted air traffic controllers and told them the plane's windshield had imploded and that he was bleeding profusely, Haines said.
That call came in when the aircraft was about 35 miles southwest of Birmingham, Alabama. Controllers tried to tell the pilot to divert the flight to Pell City, Alabama, but he did not respond. The plane appeared to have been put on autopilot around 2,000 feet, Haines said.
The plane was scheduled to land in Destin, Florida, authorities said.
Military jets that first spotted the wreckage described the cockpit as empty. Bergen said the cockpit was mostly intact and the door to the aircraft was open.
The corporate plane does not have an ejection feature, and the pilot did not have a parachute when he took off Sunday from Anderson Municipal Airport in Anderson, Indiana, airport manager Steve Darlington told CNN.
Darlington described the pilot as "accomplished" and said he owns "a couple of airplanes" and flies regularly.
Helicopters, planes, boats, and dogs and rescue crews were involved in searching the area.
Re: Malibu Meridian pilot freaks out, jumps out
Schrenker had goggles that looked like they were made for "flying," according to the release.
you can always tell a pilot from those 'goggles' we all wear!-
flyinthebug
- Rank (9)
- Posts: 1689
- Joined: Wed Feb 18, 2004 8:36 am
- Location: CYPA
Re: Malibu Meridian pilot freaks out, jumps out
DB Cooper pulled it off, too bad this guys luck was so horrible. I wonder how much $$ he had with him..now that hes known, it wont matter.
Fly safe all.
Fly safe all.
-
BibleMonkey
- Rank 8
- Posts: 903
- Joined: Sun Aug 10, 2008 1:23 am
Re: Malibu Meridian pilot freaks out, jumps out
This guy is an amateur -should have used super glue onna fake mustache , that slipstream is a bitch; and changed his name to something genuine sounding like
"Voltune Kremlovskar ".
That's the fake name I always use in motels. Nobody would believe you're crazy enough to change your name to 'Voltune Kremlovskar ". Try it and you'll see what I mean....
"Voltune Kremlovskar ".
That's the fake name I always use in motels. Nobody would believe you're crazy enough to change your name to 'Voltune Kremlovskar ". Try it and you'll see what I mean....
Re: Malibu Meridian pilot freaks out, jumps out
No sh!t? Really??!The corporate plane does not have an ejection feature
Re: Malibu Meridian pilot freaks out, jumps out
That guy should have pointed his Meridian towards the great deep blue, jumped over land with a raft attached to his person, fake having ditched and we might have been reading about a "miraculous survival story" instead...
And Guido; I don't know about you, but I regularly get asked all sorts of "obvious" questions from non-aviation people, such as: "Do you always talk to the control tower?" and "In case your engine fails, don't you wear a parachute?" so mentioning that there's no ejection seat on a Meridian gives a clearer picture to an uninitiated reader. And apart from a typo naming the Meridian a PA-36 in one text, I haven't seen any glaring mistakes.
Goodbye,
Louis
And Guido; I don't know about you, but I regularly get asked all sorts of "obvious" questions from non-aviation people, such as: "Do you always talk to the control tower?" and "In case your engine fails, don't you wear a parachute?" so mentioning that there's no ejection seat on a Meridian gives a clearer picture to an uninitiated reader. And apart from a typo naming the Meridian a PA-36 in one text, I haven't seen any glaring mistakes.
Goodbye,
Louis
Re: Malibu Meridian pilot freaks out, jumps out
Louis wrote: "In case your engine fails, don't you wear a parachute?"
My response to that one is to give them a concerned look and ask "Of course! Didn't you get yours?"
No trees were harmed in the transmission of this message. However, a rather large number of electrons were temporarily inconvenienced.
Re: Malibu Meridian pilot freaks out, jumps out
http://www.chron.com/disp/story.mpl/front/6206870.html
Businessman's life was crumbling around him
Pilot suspected of trying to fake death caught in Florida
ARPERSVILLE, Ala. — With his world crumbling around him, investment adviser Marcus Schrenker opted for a bailout. However, his plan to escape personal turmoil was short-lived.
In a feat reminiscent of a James Bond movie, the 38-year-old businessman and amateur daredevil pilot apparently tried to fake his death in a plane crash, secretly parachuting to the ground and speeding away on a motorcycle he had stashed away in the pine barrens of central Alabama.
But the captivating three-day saga came to an end when authorities finally caught up to Schrenker at a North Florida campground where he had apparently tried to take his own life, said Alabama-based U.S. Marshals spokesman Michael Richards.
Schrenker was taken into custody around 10 p.m. EST after officers from the U.S. Marshal’s office in Tallahassee, Fla., found him inside a tent at a campground in nearby Quincy, Richards said.
“He had cut one of his wrists, but he is still alive,” Richards said.
The missing pilot was tracked down after investigators developed leads that he might be in Florida and forwarded to U.S. Marshals officers there, Richards said.
Schrenker was on the run not only from the law but from divorce, a state investigation of his businesses and angry investors who accuse him of stealing potentially millions in savings they entrusted to him.
“We’ve learned over time that he’s a pathological liar — you don’t believe a single word that comes out of his mouth,” said Charles Kinney, a 49-year-old airline pilot from Atlanta who alleges Schrenker pocketed at least $135,000 of his parents’ retirement fund.
The events of the past few days appeared to be a last, desperate gambit by a man who had fallen from great heights and was about to hit bottom.
On Sunday — two days after burying his beloved stepfather and suffering a half-million-dollar loss in federal court the same day — Schrenker was flying his single-engine Piper Malibu to Florida from his Indiana home when he radioed from 2,000 feet that he was in trouble. He told the tower the windshield had imploded, and that his face was plastered with blood.
Then his radio went silent.
Military jets tried to intercept the plane and found the door open, the cockpit dark. The pilots followed until the aircraft crashed in a Florida Panhandle bayou surrounded by homes. There was no sign of Schrenker’s body. They now know they should never have expected to find one.
More than 220 miles to the north, at a convenience store in Childersburg, Ala., police picked up a man using Schrenker’s Indiana driver’s license and carrying a pair of what appeared to be pilot’s goggles. The man, who was wet from the knees down, told the officers he’d been in a canoe accident.
After officers gave him a lift to a nearby motel, Schrenker apparently made his way to a storage unit he’d rented just the day before his flight. He climbed aboard a red racing motorcycle with full saddlebags, and sped off into the countryside.
At 38, Schrenker was at the head of an impressive slate of businesses. Through his Heritage Wealth Management Inc., Heritage Insurance Services Inc. and Icon Wealth Management, he was responsible for providing financial advice and managing portfolios worth millions.
And by outward appearances, he was doing quite well.
He collected luxury automobiles, owned two airplanes and lived in a 10,000-square-foot house in an upscale neighborhood known as “Cocktail Cove,” where affluent boaters often socialize with cocktails in hand. In May 2000, he wowed onlookers by flying a special airplane at 270 mph, 10 feet above the water and under two bridges in Nassau, Bahamas.
“This stunt should not be attempted by any pilot that wishes to stay alive,” read the caption on a self-made video of the flight posted on YouTube.
He’d come a long way from his humble beginnings in northwest Indiana, where he and his two brothers were raised after their parents’ divorce by their mother and stepfather, a Vietnam veteran who worked at U.S. Steel Corp.
But officials now say Schrenker’s enterprise was ready to topple.
Authorities in Indiana have been investigating Schrenker’s businesses on allegations that he sold clients annuities and charged them exorbitant fees they weren’t aware they would face.
State Insurance Commissioner Jim Atterholt said Schrenker would close the investors out of one annuity and move them to another while charging them especially high “surrender charges” — in one case costing a retired couple $135,000 of their original $900,000 investment.
The tangled web of Schrenker’s financial affairs began to unravel more than two years ago.
The aviation buff had convinced dozens of active and retired Delta Air Lines pilots — including Kinney — to allow him to manage their retirement accounts. But some of the pilots stopped investing with him after a court case raised questions about his past.
In 2006, with Delta in federal bankruptcy proceedings, he convinced a group of pilots opposed to Delta’s move to terminate their pension plan to let him help.
“He had a way about him — you trusted the guy,” says David M. Smith, one of the retired pilots. “He was very credible. He talked a good story. So, we entrusted him with a task he never produced.”
Two days before the Sept. 1, 2006, hearing at which Schrenker was supposed to testify about an analysis he had done on the pension plan’s viability, he suddenly withdrew from the case.
“It happened very fast,” Smith recalled. “He literally was a no-show. He literally just disappeared. We were shocked at the whole thing.”
The retired pilots were unsuccessful in stopping Delta from terminating the pension plan, and the group accepted a small settlement from the airline.
Smith believes Schrenker may have been running from a past unknown to many of his clients at the time, a past that was disclosed just days earlier in a deposition of him by a Delta lawyer.
“They uncovered things that literally made your jaw open,” said Smith, adding that he and other pilots stopped letting Schrenker manage money for them after the deposition. “I believe he was scared to death that Delta was going to expose him.”
According to the 156-page deposition obtained by The Associated Press, a judge in a 2003 bankruptcy reported being “deeply concerned” that Schrenker was not disclosing thousands of dollars in monthly income to the court and not reporting the income on his tax returns.
“It is obvious to the court that the debtor has access to a significant cash flow that he is using for his personal benefit that has not been disclosed in this bankruptcy filing and in his personal tax returns,” one document reads.
Kinney said he and his parents had invested hundreds of thousands with Schrenker, but considered him more like a family friend than a financial consultant.
Schrenker, his wife and three children vacationed twice at Kinney’s parent’s lake house on northern Georgia’s Lake Lanier. But a few years ago, cracks began to surface in the relationship.
Kinney’s brother discovered $60,000 was inexplicably missing from his 85-year-old father-in-law’s investment with Schrenker. Schrenker told the family not to worry, that the money was still there in complex financial statements.
“It’s still the most disgusting thing I’ve been a part of — to know that someone let you hold their new baby on one side and was basically stealing you from on the other,” Kinney said.
In recent weeks, Schrenker’s life began to spin out of control. According to documents in a lawsuit filed in Indianapolis, Schrenker sent a frantic e-mail to plaintiffs on Dec. 16.
“I walked out on my job about 30 minutes ago,” it read. “My career is over ... over one letter in a trade error. One letter!! ... I’ve had so many people yelling at me today that I couldn’t figure out what was up or down. I still can’t figure it out.”
It’s unclear to what “error” he is referring. In another e-mail to a neighbor following his disappearance, Schrenker made reference to having “just made a 2 million dollar mistake.” But it appeared he was hoping to work things out.
“I’d rather lose everything than screw a person out of a dime,” he wrote to the plaintiffs in the Indianapolis case.
But things were now out of his hands.
On Dec. 31, officers searched Schrenker’s home, seizing the Schrenkers’ passports, $6,036 in cash, the title to a Lexus and deposit slips for bank accounts in Michelle Schrenker’s name, as well as six computers and nine large plastic tubs filled with various financial and corporate documents.
In the supporting affidavit, investigators suggested Schrenker might have access to at least $665,000 in the offshore accounts of a client.
But it wasn’t just his finances that were in turmoil.
Just a day before, Michelle Schrenker had filed for divorce. She told the people searching the house that her husband had been having an affair and had moved into a condominium a week earlier.
Schrenker’s mother is just happy to know that he is alive. She hopes whoever finds him will treat him well and give him a chance to explain what he did and why.
“Sometimes we just all have too many problems,” Marcia Galoozis said at her home outside Gary, Ind. “And I don’t know what all his problems are, but sometimes we just don’t think straight, get our heads twisted on wrong.”
Hours after Schrenker vanished, neighbor Tom Britt received what he believes is an e-mail from Schrenker.
Despite the fact that no blood was found in the plane, Schrenker suggests in the note that the crash was truly an accident and blamed oxygen deprivation.
“Hypoxia can cause people to make terrible decisions and I simply put on my parachute and survival gear and bailed out,” the e-mail reads.
———
Associated Press writers Rick Callahan, Ken Kusmer and Jeni O’Malley in Indianapolis, and Harry Weber in Atlanta also contributed to this report.
Businessman's life was crumbling around him
Pilot suspected of trying to fake death caught in Florida
ARPERSVILLE, Ala. — With his world crumbling around him, investment adviser Marcus Schrenker opted for a bailout. However, his plan to escape personal turmoil was short-lived.
In a feat reminiscent of a James Bond movie, the 38-year-old businessman and amateur daredevil pilot apparently tried to fake his death in a plane crash, secretly parachuting to the ground and speeding away on a motorcycle he had stashed away in the pine barrens of central Alabama.
But the captivating three-day saga came to an end when authorities finally caught up to Schrenker at a North Florida campground where he had apparently tried to take his own life, said Alabama-based U.S. Marshals spokesman Michael Richards.
Schrenker was taken into custody around 10 p.m. EST after officers from the U.S. Marshal’s office in Tallahassee, Fla., found him inside a tent at a campground in nearby Quincy, Richards said.
“He had cut one of his wrists, but he is still alive,” Richards said.
The missing pilot was tracked down after investigators developed leads that he might be in Florida and forwarded to U.S. Marshals officers there, Richards said.
Schrenker was on the run not only from the law but from divorce, a state investigation of his businesses and angry investors who accuse him of stealing potentially millions in savings they entrusted to him.
“We’ve learned over time that he’s a pathological liar — you don’t believe a single word that comes out of his mouth,” said Charles Kinney, a 49-year-old airline pilot from Atlanta who alleges Schrenker pocketed at least $135,000 of his parents’ retirement fund.
The events of the past few days appeared to be a last, desperate gambit by a man who had fallen from great heights and was about to hit bottom.
On Sunday — two days after burying his beloved stepfather and suffering a half-million-dollar loss in federal court the same day — Schrenker was flying his single-engine Piper Malibu to Florida from his Indiana home when he radioed from 2,000 feet that he was in trouble. He told the tower the windshield had imploded, and that his face was plastered with blood.
Then his radio went silent.
Military jets tried to intercept the plane and found the door open, the cockpit dark. The pilots followed until the aircraft crashed in a Florida Panhandle bayou surrounded by homes. There was no sign of Schrenker’s body. They now know they should never have expected to find one.
More than 220 miles to the north, at a convenience store in Childersburg, Ala., police picked up a man using Schrenker’s Indiana driver’s license and carrying a pair of what appeared to be pilot’s goggles. The man, who was wet from the knees down, told the officers he’d been in a canoe accident.
After officers gave him a lift to a nearby motel, Schrenker apparently made his way to a storage unit he’d rented just the day before his flight. He climbed aboard a red racing motorcycle with full saddlebags, and sped off into the countryside.
At 38, Schrenker was at the head of an impressive slate of businesses. Through his Heritage Wealth Management Inc., Heritage Insurance Services Inc. and Icon Wealth Management, he was responsible for providing financial advice and managing portfolios worth millions.
And by outward appearances, he was doing quite well.
He collected luxury automobiles, owned two airplanes and lived in a 10,000-square-foot house in an upscale neighborhood known as “Cocktail Cove,” where affluent boaters often socialize with cocktails in hand. In May 2000, he wowed onlookers by flying a special airplane at 270 mph, 10 feet above the water and under two bridges in Nassau, Bahamas.
“This stunt should not be attempted by any pilot that wishes to stay alive,” read the caption on a self-made video of the flight posted on YouTube.
He’d come a long way from his humble beginnings in northwest Indiana, where he and his two brothers were raised after their parents’ divorce by their mother and stepfather, a Vietnam veteran who worked at U.S. Steel Corp.
But officials now say Schrenker’s enterprise was ready to topple.
Authorities in Indiana have been investigating Schrenker’s businesses on allegations that he sold clients annuities and charged them exorbitant fees they weren’t aware they would face.
State Insurance Commissioner Jim Atterholt said Schrenker would close the investors out of one annuity and move them to another while charging them especially high “surrender charges” — in one case costing a retired couple $135,000 of their original $900,000 investment.
The tangled web of Schrenker’s financial affairs began to unravel more than two years ago.
The aviation buff had convinced dozens of active and retired Delta Air Lines pilots — including Kinney — to allow him to manage their retirement accounts. But some of the pilots stopped investing with him after a court case raised questions about his past.
In 2006, with Delta in federal bankruptcy proceedings, he convinced a group of pilots opposed to Delta’s move to terminate their pension plan to let him help.
“He had a way about him — you trusted the guy,” says David M. Smith, one of the retired pilots. “He was very credible. He talked a good story. So, we entrusted him with a task he never produced.”
Two days before the Sept. 1, 2006, hearing at which Schrenker was supposed to testify about an analysis he had done on the pension plan’s viability, he suddenly withdrew from the case.
“It happened very fast,” Smith recalled. “He literally was a no-show. He literally just disappeared. We were shocked at the whole thing.”
The retired pilots were unsuccessful in stopping Delta from terminating the pension plan, and the group accepted a small settlement from the airline.
Smith believes Schrenker may have been running from a past unknown to many of his clients at the time, a past that was disclosed just days earlier in a deposition of him by a Delta lawyer.
“They uncovered things that literally made your jaw open,” said Smith, adding that he and other pilots stopped letting Schrenker manage money for them after the deposition. “I believe he was scared to death that Delta was going to expose him.”
According to the 156-page deposition obtained by The Associated Press, a judge in a 2003 bankruptcy reported being “deeply concerned” that Schrenker was not disclosing thousands of dollars in monthly income to the court and not reporting the income on his tax returns.
“It is obvious to the court that the debtor has access to a significant cash flow that he is using for his personal benefit that has not been disclosed in this bankruptcy filing and in his personal tax returns,” one document reads.
Kinney said he and his parents had invested hundreds of thousands with Schrenker, but considered him more like a family friend than a financial consultant.
Schrenker, his wife and three children vacationed twice at Kinney’s parent’s lake house on northern Georgia’s Lake Lanier. But a few years ago, cracks began to surface in the relationship.
Kinney’s brother discovered $60,000 was inexplicably missing from his 85-year-old father-in-law’s investment with Schrenker. Schrenker told the family not to worry, that the money was still there in complex financial statements.
“It’s still the most disgusting thing I’ve been a part of — to know that someone let you hold their new baby on one side and was basically stealing you from on the other,” Kinney said.
In recent weeks, Schrenker’s life began to spin out of control. According to documents in a lawsuit filed in Indianapolis, Schrenker sent a frantic e-mail to plaintiffs on Dec. 16.
“I walked out on my job about 30 minutes ago,” it read. “My career is over ... over one letter in a trade error. One letter!! ... I’ve had so many people yelling at me today that I couldn’t figure out what was up or down. I still can’t figure it out.”
It’s unclear to what “error” he is referring. In another e-mail to a neighbor following his disappearance, Schrenker made reference to having “just made a 2 million dollar mistake.” But it appeared he was hoping to work things out.
“I’d rather lose everything than screw a person out of a dime,” he wrote to the plaintiffs in the Indianapolis case.
But things were now out of his hands.
On Dec. 31, officers searched Schrenker’s home, seizing the Schrenkers’ passports, $6,036 in cash, the title to a Lexus and deposit slips for bank accounts in Michelle Schrenker’s name, as well as six computers and nine large plastic tubs filled with various financial and corporate documents.
In the supporting affidavit, investigators suggested Schrenker might have access to at least $665,000 in the offshore accounts of a client.
But it wasn’t just his finances that were in turmoil.
Just a day before, Michelle Schrenker had filed for divorce. She told the people searching the house that her husband had been having an affair and had moved into a condominium a week earlier.
Schrenker’s mother is just happy to know that he is alive. She hopes whoever finds him will treat him well and give him a chance to explain what he did and why.
“Sometimes we just all have too many problems,” Marcia Galoozis said at her home outside Gary, Ind. “And I don’t know what all his problems are, but sometimes we just don’t think straight, get our heads twisted on wrong.”
Hours after Schrenker vanished, neighbor Tom Britt received what he believes is an e-mail from Schrenker.
Despite the fact that no blood was found in the plane, Schrenker suggests in the note that the crash was truly an accident and blamed oxygen deprivation.
“Hypoxia can cause people to make terrible decisions and I simply put on my parachute and survival gear and bailed out,” the e-mail reads.
———
Associated Press writers Rick Callahan, Ken Kusmer and Jeni O’Malley in Indianapolis, and Harry Weber in Atlanta also contributed to this report.
-
midwingcrisis
- Rank 5
- Posts: 371
- Joined: Wed Feb 23, 2005 1:54 pm
Re: Malibu Meridian pilot freaks out, jumps out
Looks like they are slowly rounding up these scumbags one way or another. 1st it was Madoff, now Schrenker...who's next? Kudos for the SEC and now Homeland Security.
How do you go 205 kts TAS on 32 gal/hr without turbos!
Re: Malibu Meridian pilot freaks out, jumps out
How hard is it to fly upright, straight and level,
underneath a bridge? I would have been impressed
if he had done it inverted
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kxOX0wspMSY
Jurgis Kairys is a pro. See the difference?
underneath a bridge? I would have been impressed
if he had done it inverted
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kxOX0wspMSY
Jurgis Kairys is a pro. See the difference?
-
Cat Driver
- Top Poster
- Posts: 18921
- Joined: Sun Feb 15, 2004 8:31 pm
Re: Malibu Meridian pilot freaks out, jumps out
Big deal, if a sail boat can pass under the bridge an Extra 300 has so much room to spare it is boring.
The hardest thing about flying is knowing when to say no
After over a half a century of flying no one ever died because of my decision not to fly.
After over a half a century of flying no one ever died because of my decision not to fly.
Re: Malibu Meridian pilot freaks out, jumps out
I'm reminded of the fun you can have on short
final to runway 26 at Toronto Island, where you
slalom around the sailboat masts
Back to flying under bridges ... to make it worthwhile,
at least loop it. Bonus points for an outside loop,
instead of a vanilla inside loop (yawn). If you want
some real respect, loop it outside, in formation.
final to runway 26 at Toronto Island, where you
slalom around the sailboat masts
Back to flying under bridges ... to make it worthwhile,
at least loop it. Bonus points for an outside loop,
instead of a vanilla inside loop (yawn). If you want
some real respect, loop it outside, in formation.
-
flyinthebug
- Rank (9)
- Posts: 1689
- Joined: Wed Feb 18, 2004 8:36 am
- Location: CYPA
Re: Malibu Meridian pilot freaks out, jumps out
Good point Hedley! We used to fly under the gate into YVR harbour in DHC2s when the weather was that bad. Do guys still do that out there? The Pitts move was impressive!
Fly safe all.
Fly safe all.
Re: Malibu Meridian pilot freaks out, jumps out
Careful. Although there is no Canadian Aviation RegulationWe used to fly under the gate ...
which specifically prohibits flying under bridges, etc I am sure
that you would get a registered letter in respect of CAR 602.01
(reckless and/or negligent) from Enforcement, if they knew
you did it.
By precedent, the standard for a negligent act at the Tribunal
is something which a "prudent" pilot would not do. Transport
would very likely argue that a "prudent" pilot would not fly
under a bridge, therefore you were negligent, therefore you
contravened CAR 602.01.
You do not want to know how I found all this out.
If you want to fly under a structure, be sure and tap
a float on the water as you do so, because then you
are taxiing, and I think we can all agree that a "prudent"
pilot would taxi under a structure, and hence CAR 602.01
no longer applies.
-
midwingcrisis
- Rank 5
- Posts: 371
- Joined: Wed Feb 23, 2005 1:54 pm
Re: Malibu Meridian pilot freaks out, jumps out
Perhaps he was seeking the ultimate financial "bailout"!
How do you go 205 kts TAS on 32 gal/hr without turbos!
-
flyinthebug
- Rank (9)
- Posts: 1689
- Joined: Wed Feb 18, 2004 8:36 am
- Location: CYPA
Re: Malibu Meridian pilot freaks out, jumps out
Hedley, do you mean its not simply "frowned upon"? lol. Thx for the info, and I WONT ask how you came to have such indepth knowledge;) Oh and I didnt say *I* did it, I believe I suggested "we" meaning our "other" pilots LOL.
Cheers!
Cheers!
-
Cat Driver
- Top Poster
- Posts: 18921
- Joined: Sun Feb 15, 2004 8:31 pm
Re: Malibu Meridian pilot freaks out, jumps out
If the bridge is to low to safely fly " under " it then the next choice is fly " through " it.
Even a sail boat would have problems doing that.
Even a sail boat would have problems doing that.
The hardest thing about flying is knowing when to say no
After over a half a century of flying no one ever died because of my decision not to fly.
After over a half a century of flying no one ever died because of my decision not to fly.
Re: Malibu Meridian pilot freaks out, jumps out
According to quantum mechanics, that is possible, though not likely.the next choice is fly " through " it
-
Cat Driver
- Top Poster
- Posts: 18921
- Joined: Sun Feb 15, 2004 8:31 pm
Re: Malibu Meridian pilot freaks out, jumps out
Sure it is Hedley, all you need is to find a hole in the structure that you can safely fly the airplane through....
...it is best done by first examining the size of said hole and being 100% sure the airplane will go through said hole without shedding parts off the thing....and of course you must be 100% sure you can in fact do it.
First you carefully study the bridge from a position that allows you a clear view. Obviously it would be easier to fly through it instead of under it due to how low the bridge is.
http://i43.photobucket.com/albums/e353/ ... 3R3481.jpg
Then you take off.
http://i43.photobucket.com/albums/e353/ ... Bridge.jpg
Once in the air you do a 180 degree turn and fly through the hole..
http://i43.photobucket.com/albums/e353/ ... 3546-1.jpg
Nothing to it.
...it is best done by first examining the size of said hole and being 100% sure the airplane will go through said hole without shedding parts off the thing....and of course you must be 100% sure you can in fact do it.
First you carefully study the bridge from a position that allows you a clear view. Obviously it would be easier to fly through it instead of under it due to how low the bridge is.
http://i43.photobucket.com/albums/e353/ ... 3R3481.jpg
Then you take off.
http://i43.photobucket.com/albums/e353/ ... Bridge.jpg
Once in the air you do a 180 degree turn and fly through the hole..
http://i43.photobucket.com/albums/e353/ ... 3546-1.jpg
Nothing to it.
The hardest thing about flying is knowing when to say no
After over a half a century of flying no one ever died because of my decision not to fly.
After over a half a century of flying no one ever died because of my decision not to fly.
