Trevor Jacob, aged 29, faces up to 20 years in prison after deliberately crashing a plane for views on social media.
The influencer is known to create YouTube videos based on adventure, stories, and things he has learned over time. Now, he pleads guilty to “obstructing a federal investigation after purposely crashing his small plane into Los Padres national forest in California.
Jacob will face up to 20 years in federal prison as stated by the US Department of Justice.
Everything was planned from the camera set-up around the plane to the parachute Trevor Jacob had attached to himself. Jacob had planned the stunt to boost views on his YouTube channel but told investigators that he had lost power and was unsure of where the crash was.
After further investigation was done, authorities found no supporting evidence to his claim and found that he had made no attempt to call air traffic control, restart his engine or find a secure and safe place to land.
This was quite off for an experienced pilot and one of the first things that is taught when flying – is how and where to land safely.
35 minutes into the flight, Trevor jumped from the plane and began filming the aircraft as it crashed below. As soon as he landed safely on the ground, the YouTuber ran to the aircraft to retrieve the footage to upload on his channel.
It was only two days later that Trevor decided to inform the National Transportation Safety Board (NTSB), but reiterated that he did not know where the plane wreck was.
To mislead the authorities, Jacob and his friend flew to the crash site on the 10th of December, 2021, and dissected and destroyed parts of the plane. In his trial, he admitted to this and it was explained that it was done to deceive the investigation.
“I Crashed My Plane” was uploaded on to Trevor Jacob’s YouTube channel on the 23rd of December, 2021. However, the FAA revoked his pilot license in April 2022.
Trevor has 140K subscribers still on his YouTube channel and the video has hit over 4 million views, with 38K likes.
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