BELLE CHASSE, La. – Two Louisiana Air National Guard pilots intercepted the airplane used by Marcus Schrenker, an Indiana businessman, to allegedly fake his death, according to the guard.

Facing millions of dollars in legal and financial troubles and a pending divorce, Shrenker reportedly called in a fake distress signal to authorities and then trashed his plane in an attempt to possibly escape.

The call was picked up by two pilots, Maj. Matt Rippen and Capt. Josh Fogle, both with the 159th Fighter Wing. The pilots were manning their alert mission in Belle Chasse, when they received a distress call.

“This is just one part of our mission which includes homeland defense,” said Rippen in statement.  “We have conducted many intercepts with the situation usually being one of someone accidentally flying off course or perhaps being on the wrong frequency.”

When the pilots found the Schrenker’s plane, it was still in the air headed toward the Gulf of Mexico.  Rippen and Fogle followed plane until it hit the ground, according to the guard. It is believed that Schrenker jumped out of the plane in Alabama.

The pilots learned later Schrenker was not in the plane. He had parachuted out earlier and was found by U.S. Marshalls several days later at a Florida campground, allegedly attempting to commit suicide in a tent by slitting his wrists.

Fogle directed local authorities to the crash site to recover the plane and try to locate the pilot.

After learning of Shrenker’s failed ruse, Fogle said Schrenker's lack of concern about the houses and people the unmanned airplane could have crashed into was “a little bit frustrating to me.”