Desperation sky-diving

Had enough? Jump out of a plane!

Marcus Schrenker thought he had it all figured out, the authorities say.

Desperate to escape mounting legal, financial and marital problems, the troubled financial adviser hopped in his six-seat plane on Sunday and flew south across Alabama, faked a distress call and then parachuted out moments later, leaving the plane to coast to a crash landing hundreds of miles away. Once on the ground, they said, he made his way to a motorcycle he had stashed over the weekend, paying for incidentals along the way — like a motel room and a storage unit — with cash.

He didn't last too long though (though 3 days ain't bad). But in the words of his own fake-suicide-email, "Hypoxia can cause people to make terrible decisions and I simply put on my parachute and survival gear and bailed out," claiming his window had exploded.

Superior aircraft bailout? D.B. Cooper:

D. B. Cooper is the name attributed to a man who hijacked a Boeing 727 aircraft in the United States on November 24, 1971, received US$200,000 in ransom, and parachuted from the plane. He was never apprehended. The name he used to board the plane was Dan Cooper, but through a later press miscommunication, he became known as "D. B. Cooper". Despite hundreds of leads through the years, no conclusive evidence has surfaced regarding Cooper's true identity or whereabouts, and the bulk of the money has never been recovered. Several theories offer competing explanations of what happened after his famed jump, which the FBI believes he did not survive.

Ah well, perhaps jumping out of airplanes is not the best option.