Blogger Trevor Jacob deliberately crashed his light aircraft in order to increase the number of views and likes, as well as to get more funds from sponsors. The man faces up to 20 years in prison, reports MC.today.
In a video titled “I Crashed My Plane”, which has been viewed by over four million people on YouTube, Trevor Jacob suffered engine problems while flying over southern California in November 2021.
The video documents how 29-year-old Jacob ejects from a single-engine plane with a selfie stick in his hands and parachutes into the dense vegetation of the Los Padres National Forest.
Jacob films the whole process as he walks to the vehicle and shows the aftermath of the accident.
A few weeks after the incident, National Safety Board investigators investigated the crash and ordered Jacob to save the wreckage.
The YouTuber told officials he didn’t know where the plane crashed, but according to other accounts, two weeks after the incident, he and a friend pulled the wreckage out of the woods using a helicopter after recovering data from the onboard cameras.
Over the next few days, he cut the plane into small pieces and threw them into the trash cans at the Lompoc City airport.
Jacob soon admitted that he intended to obstruct the investigation of the disaster when he disposed of the wreckage and created the video to raise money through sponsorship of a wallet company.
He also admitted that he lied to federal investigators when he filed a plane crash report that falsely stated that the plane had completely lost power about 35 minutes after takeoff.
Jacob also lied to an aviation safety inspector when he said that the plane’s engine had stalled and because the blogger could not determine any safe landing options, he parachuted.
He agreed to plead guilty to one of the counts of destroying and concealing evidence with intent to obstruct a federal investigation. The law carries a maximum penalty of 20 years in federal prison for this crime.
The YouTuber is expected to formally admit his guilt in Los Angeles in the coming weeks, with a verdict to be handed down at a later date.
Pilots and aviation experts commented that Jacob could easily steer the plane safely to the landing site and that wearing a parachute while flying in a small aircraft was “very unusual”.