Questions linger one year after pilot ditched plane on his way to Destin

Today Marcus Schrenker has spent almost six months of his 51 month sentence in federal prison for willfully damaging, destroying, and wrecking his aircraft and willfully communicating a false distress message which caused the United States Coast Guard to attempt to save his life and property when no help was needed.

But one of the big questions still remains: why did this happen?

Back on Jan. 11, 2009, Schrenker’s unmanned plane crashed in East Milton. The plane narrowly missed a group of homes and was just over a mile from hitting downtown Milton.

Since his incarceration, the Fishers, Ind., resident has talked about writing a book.

Following the Sunday night crash, Schrenker was sought by authorities for three days.

The search for Schrenker started in Harpersville, Ala., and ended just outside of Quincy, Fla., at a KOA Campground where the troubled financial adviser had attempted suicide.

Former NAS Whiting Field Commander Capt. Rick Sadsad recalled the events of that fateful evening.

“I was asleep at home when all the sudden I got woke up seeking permission to use our airfield,” Sadsad said, who is now serving in Bahrain. “I told them an emphatic yes.”

To lister to audio to the FAA Tower on Jan. 11, 2009, click here.

When Schrenker’s plane crashed in East Milton, a search immediately ensued but was called off due to the rising water as the tide was coming in that evening without a sign of Schrenker.

To see a photo gallery of the crash scene, click here.

Santa Rosa County Sheriff ’s Sgt. Scott Haines was on the scene of the accident that evening and announced the search for the missing pilots body had been called off.

Attempts to reach Haines for his comments on that evening have been unsuccessful.

Schrenker reportedly left an Anderson, Ind., airport and was believed to be headed to Destin the day of the crash.

At sentencing Schrenker was ordered to pay restitution to the United States Coast Guard in the amount of $34,649.09 for the cost of the search and rescue effort, and restitution to Harley Davidson Credit Corporation, the lien holder, in the amount of $871,387.85 for the aircraft. The latter amount was ordered offset by any payment by U.S. Specialty Insurance Corporation to Harley Davidson, the insurer.

Less than one month following Schrenker’s 2009 arrest, the Indiana based financial planner and pilot got more bad news as a judge in Dothan, Ala., issued a $12-million judgement against Schrenker over the sale of an airplane.

Barnett Hudson’s lawsuit said Schrenker fraudulently sold him a damaged airplane in 2002.

In a December letter to Hudson’s attorney, Schrenker wrote that he was broke and wouldn’t defend himself.

Schrenker was facing more than $9 million in court judgments and potential penalties when authorities say he bailed out of his plane over Alabama and let it crash to make it appear he was dead.

According to the fraud lawsuit, Schrenker advertised a plane for sale and said it had never been damaged. However, Hudson later learned the plane had extensive damage from a “hard landing” in 2001.

The suit also alleged Schrenker collected almost $100,000 on an insurance claim from the hard landing, but made no repairs to the plane other than “cosmetic” ones.

In his ruling, Circuit Judge Lawson Little wrote that Schrenker had a legal obligation to report damage to the aircraft before selling it to Hudson. Little said the failure could have resulted in an accident that killed Hudson. He imposed $3 million in compensatory damages and $9 million in punitive damages.

“The court takes judicial notice of the fact that Mr. Schrenker recently attempted to fake his own death and deliberately crashed his airplane in the panhandle of Florida; again, putting at risk innocent persons and businesses on the ground,” Little wrote.

Editor's note: We received the audio files from the FAA in Atlanta and edited the tape for time considerations by removing long pauses without audio.