Man draws prison, fine in plane crash

PENSACOLA, Fla., Aug. 20 (UPI) -- A man who apparently tried to fake his own death by crashing his plane in the Florida Panhandle has been sentenced to 51 months in prison, officials say.

Marcus Schrenker, a 38-year-old McCordsville, Ind., businessman, also was fined more than $900,000 as restitution for the plane and the fake U.S. Coast Guard distress action, officers in Pensacola, Fla., told CNN Wednesday.

Schrenker, who owns three companies in a suburb of Indianapolis, reportedly was involved in a case of alleged fraud when he took off alone in a Piper PA46 plane from Anderson, Ind., on Jan. 11, saying he was bound for Destin, Fla.,

Over Alabama, according to testimony, he told air traffic controllers his windshield had imploded, he was hurt and did not think he would make it.

Schrenker said he jumped from the plane near Childersburg, Ala. Two F-15 fighter jets, scrambled to find him, reported spotting the plane still in the air but apparently with no one aboard.

Federal officers, aided by documents in the plane, later arrested Schrenker at a campground site.