High-flyer fakes distress call

Indianapolis: Marcus Schrenker presented himself as a high-flying pilot with the nerves to pull off aerial stunts and as an investment manager with the brains to make portfolios soar.

He bought luxury automobiles, two airplanes and a $40 million (Dh147 million) house in an upscale neighbourhood known as "Cocktail Cove", where affluent boaters often socialise with cocktails in hand.

But beyond that image, Schrenker's life appeared to be spiraling downward: He lost a half-million-dollar judgment against one of his companies when he skipped a court hearing, and his wife filed for divorce. Investigators probing his businesses for possible securities violations searched his home and office. By Monday, the descent was complete after he apparently faked a distress call, bailed out of his small plane and then let it crash in a Florida panhandle swamp.

Suicide

He would later e-mail a friend describing the situation as a misunderstanding but also ominously warn, "I embarrassed my family for the last time."

Neighbour Tom Britt said he received an e-mail on Monday night from Schrenker claiming the crash was an accident and saying he wanted the companies under investigation to succeed. Britt believes the e-mail that alludes to suicide is real, but its auth-enticity hasn't been verified.

Britt quoted Schrenker as saying, "By the time you read this I'll be gone." A call to the US Marshals seeking comment about the e-mail's authenticity wasn't immediately returned.

The crash investigation began on Sunday night, when Schrenker's single-engine Piper Malibu went down in a swampy area en route to Destin, Florida, from Anderson, Indiana. Schrenker had reported that the windshield imploded and that he was bleeding profusely, according to the Santa Rosa County sheriff's office.

After he stopped responding to air traffic controllers, military jets tried to intercept the plane. They noticed the door was open and the cockpit was dark, following it until it crashed in a bayou surrounded by homes.

But when investigators found the plane, its door was ajar and the wreckage showed no signs of blood or the blown windshield. The sheriff's office said Schrenker appeared to have intentionally abandoned his plane.

In the e-mail, Britt is asked to set the record straight and Schrenker says he's stunned after reading coverage of the case on the internet. According to the e-mail, the accident was caused when the window on the pilot side imploded, spraying him with glass and reducing cabin pressure. "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.

Schrenker said he "just made a $2 million mistake" but that he wanted his companies to succeed and the problems weren't his fault. Britt said he wasn't sure what was meant by the dollar amount.