YouTuber who deliberately crashed plane for content then lied about it is jailed for six months, even he admits it's the 'right decision'

07.12.2023 - 16:43 / pcgamer.com

YouTuber Trevor Jacob, a former Olympian and self-styled adventurer and entrepreneur, has been sent to jail for six months for deliberately crashing a plane in 2021, filming the whole thing for views, and putting the cherry on top by lying to US investigators about what happened. Even Jacob himself admitted after the sentence that this was the «right decision,» per the BBC.

Jacob posted the video titled «I crashed my airplane» on December 23, 2021, during which you can see him taking off before apparent problems with the front propeller (the original video has been removed: this slightly edited version was uploaded one day later and remains live). Jacobs swears a bit before climbing out of the plane's door, with his parachute and the even-more-essential selfie stick, and filming the plane as he descends. The plane also has cameras mounted on the body filming the whole thing.

Even at the time of the original video some viewers were sceptical, noting that among other details Jacob had taken off already wearing his parachute, and the plane subsequently crashed into the Los Padres National Forest. Jacob hiked to the site and recovered the video, and two days later reported the crash to the National Transportation Safety Board. This agency told Jacob he was responsible for preserving the wreckage, but he claimed not to know where it had crashed. After this, on December 10 2021, he and a friend travelled to the crash site via helicopter, recovered the wreckage, and later dismantled and disposed of it in bins.

The original video is intended to give the impression that the crash was a legitimate emergency, and at the time of writing has been viewed just over 4.5 million times.

Au contraire, said US prosecutors in California. Jacob «did not intend to reach his destination, but instead planned to eject from his aircraft during the flight and video himself parachuting to the ground and his airplane as it descended and crashed.» The YouTuber «most likely committed this offence to generate social media and news coverage for himself and to obtain financial gain [...] this type of 'daredevil' conduct cannot be tolerated.»

The charge was one felony count of destruction and concealment with the intent to obstruct a federal investigation. Jacob pleaded guilty and admitted in a plea deal that he had filmed the video as part of a sponsorship tie-in with a wallet company. 

«Two years ago I jumped out of a perfectly good airplane and let it crash into the ground, took some bad advice, and decided to remove the wreckage,» said Jacob in a statement posted to Instagram. «Today I was sentenced to 6 months in Federal Prison.» Jacob goes on to thank family and friends, his lawyer, and Federal Judge Walter «for understanding the