Running on Fumes

It’s burning up the internet news right now: The pilot who attempted to fake his own death by intentionally crashing his plane, parachuting to safety and making his escape on a motorcycle he had stashed away near the crash site. http://www.cnn.com/2009/US/01/13/missing.pilot/index.html

The pilot, an Indiana financial manager named Marcus Schrencker, is reported to have staged the bizarre stunt to flee from business troubles, including charges that he has defrauded investors. CNN.com reports Schrenker fled on a “2008 Yamaha street bike with saddlebags,” which had been placed in a storage facility by Schrenker under an assumed name.

You know, I bet it was an FJR. A really great bike, one my favorites of all the bikes I’ve ever tested here at MotorcycleUSA.com. In fact, when the time comes for me to fake my own death via plane crash – I would more than likely source an FJR, or maybe a KLR650 in case I needed to take some dirt roads….

But forget what exact bike it was, the real question I have is:

Didn’t Krusty the Clown already try this on the Simpsons?

I’m almost 100% sure – if there’s one thing I know it’s Simpsons trivia.

Other possible sources of inspiration for this idea include DB Cooper’s notorious bank heist that included a parachute escape into the Washington/Oregon forests. No one knows for sure what happened to DB Cooper. It’s assumed that he died from the jump… Or made a clean getaway.

It's uncertain how the desperate gambit plays out for Mr. Schrenker, but it doesn't look good so far. The same CNN.com story says a friend received an email after the accident, where the author tries to describe the event as a “misunderstanding.”

Yeah, “misunderstanding."