TYLER, Texas (AP) - A Texas pilot who survived a 2012 Gulf of Mexico crash and used an iPad to record his time in the water acknowledges it was insurance-related fraud.
Theodore Robert Wright III pleaded guilty Thursday in Tyler to conspiring to commit wire fraud and conspiring to commit arson. He faces up to 40 years in federal prison.
Prosecutors say Wright and three others - who’ve also pleaded guilty - bought planes, boats and cars, over-insured them and destroyed the vehicles to collect cash.
Wright in October 2012 appeared on NBC’s “Today” show to describe a crash a month earlier on a flight from Baytown, Texas, to Sarasota, Florida. The plane crashed off Louisiana.
Wright, who’s a native of Port Kent, New York, used his iPad to record the ordeal before rescued.
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