Flying high in Cocktail Cove

It was supposed to be a routine flight. Or so its ordinary flight plan advertised.

On the night of Sunday, Jan. 11, a high-performance, single-engine turboprop belonging to investment adviser Marcus Schrenker was en route from Anderson, Ind., to Destin, Fla. Marcus was at the controls. Less than two hours into the flight, while the plane was somewhere over northern Ala., air traffic controllers received a distress call. 

It was Marcus. In a frantic voice, he told them his windshield had imploded, that he was bleeding profusely, and needed emergency help.

Then, nothing.

Controllers radioed back: land at the nearest airport. No response. The plane kept flying on...and on...and on.

From New Orleans, two f-15 fighter jets scrambled into the night, hoping to catch up with the unresponsive plane as it hurtled towards the Gulf Coast, and the sensitive military installations near Pensacola.

Soon, in the Florida Panhandle, an emergency call came into the Santa Rosa county sheriff's department. It was from a military air traffic controller.

Sgt. Scott Haines: As it started to unfold, it started becoming very obvious that this was something that was very bizarre.

Residents heard sonic booms, saw flares lighting up the sky. Word was a pilot was in big trouble.

Later, back home in Indiana, in the big house on Cocktail Cove, Michelle Schrenker was trying to comprehend what was wrong, getting calls from air traffic control and the military, asking who might have been flying on Marcus' plane.

Keith Morrison: They wouldn't tell you why they were calling, other than that?

Michelle Schrenker: They said they were looking for him.

Keith Morrison: They couldn't find him.

Michelle Schrenker: Uh-huh, so they were looking for him.  And I asked what happened.  And they said, We're just looking for him.  He got off the radar.

Within an hour, another call came in from the Air Force.

Michelle Schrenker: By then I was crying and I said, “You know, what's going on, I mean has something happened to him? You know, what's going on?” And she asked if I had family there.  And I said, “No, I've got three sleeping kids.”

Then, finally, near Pensacola, Fla., confirmation: In a place strangely reminiscent of Cocktail Cove, a plane had, in fact, crashed.

Sgt. Scott Haines: And I knew something was odd right away, because there were military aircraft-- jets circling ahead. 

Now a ground search was on. It took nearly an hour to get to the crash site.  It was Marcus' plane.  Was marcus alive, or dead?

Michelle Schrenker: Somewhere in the three o'clock area, my doorbell rang and a sheriff and a colonel rang my doorbell. Finally knew. I mean, I just started shaking, cause I knew when they come to your door it's not good.  And they said, “Are you Mrs. Schrenker?” And they said, “Your husband's plane has gone down,” and my knees kind of gave out underneath me.

But that wasn't all.

Michelle Schrenker: And he said, "But his body isn't in the plane, which is good, so we're still looking for him.”

No body?  What could possibly have happened?  Could he have been thrown from the plane?  Somehow survived and walked away from the crash into the swamplands of Florida?

Scott Haines, Sheriff's Dept.: When we got there with the dogs, we didn't locate any blood.  We didn't locate any imploded windshields, such as the emergency call stated. That's when we realized that something was definitely not right with the situation.

As Monday morning dawned, Indianapolis TV reporter Chris Proffitt heard about the crash in Florida.  He called Tom Britt, the man who runs the local newsletter.

Chris Proffitt: I said, “Do you know that Marcus Schrenker's plane went down in Northwest Florida last night?”

Tom Britt: I knew something was up, my immediate radar went up.

Chris Proffitt: “He says this guy would fake his own death. I’m positive of it.”

MORE FROM NEWSMAKERS

Newsmakers Section Front

NBC's People of the Year: Read the interviews Vote: Who do you think is person of the year? Secrets Of The Lost Symbol Read an excerpt from 'The Lost Symbol' The Michael Jackson Tapes Michael Jackson: ‘I am scared of my father’ Back to Woodstock Kidnapped Heiress: The Patty Hearst Story On tour with Taylor Swift See behind-the-scenes web videos of Taylor Swift Newsmakers Section Front   Add Newsmakers headlines to your news reader: