US YouTuber who crashed plane for views faces up to 20 years in prison
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In the video, Jacob is shown ejecting himself with his selfie stick in hand and parachuting over the Los Padres National Forest, as cameras on the aircraft recorded its out-of-control descent until its crash landing.
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A video still showing YouTuber Trevor Jacob about to jump from his plane (Youtube screengrab)
According to US authorities, YouTuber pilot Trevor Jacob who bailed out from his plane midair and intentionally sent it crashing into the ground to boost views could face a jail sentence of up to 20 years.
In the video titled "I crashed my airplane," Jacob seems to experience engine trouble while flying over the south of California in November 2021. The video has garnered well above 3 million views.
He is shown ejecting himself with his selfie stick in hand and parachuting over the Los Padres National Forest, as cameras on the aircraft recorded its out-of-control descent until its crash landing.
The video showed Jacob struggling through poison oak and bushes, giving updates about how lost and thirsty he is until he finds a stream and drinks water when a vehicle comes to save him.
However, weeks after the video happened, the National Transportation Safety Board alongside the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) launched an investigation, and the YouTuber was given an order to keep the wreckage.
Although Jacob told authorities that he did not know the crash location, according to a plea deal in Los Angeles, he and a friend got the wreckage out of the forest using a helicopter two weeks later, from earlier recovered data from the plane footage. The wreckage was cut into small pieces and dumped around Lompoc City Airport.
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The FAA took Jacob's pilot's license away in April 2022, after which in a plea deal, he admitted to his intention to mislead federal authorities and made the video for money through a sponsorship with a wallet company.
A statement from the Department of Justice said, "Jacob further admitted he lied to federal investigators when he submitted an aircraft accident incident report that falsely indicated that the aircraft experienced a full loss of power approximately 35 minutes after takeoff," adding, "Jacob also lied to an FAA aviation safety inspector when he said the airplane's engine had quit and, because he could not identify any safe landing options, he had parachuted out of the plane."
As a result, he pled guilty to one count of destruction and concealment with the intent to obstruct a federal investigation, which constitutes a crime with a statutory maximum sentence of 20 years in federal prison.
He is expected to formally enter his plea in LA in the next few weeks, and be sentenced soon after. Per the criticism of some pilots and aviation experts, Jacob failed to take even basic steps to restart his plane's 'troubled engine'.
