A twenty-nine year-old YouTuber has agreed to plead guilty to a federal charge after he destroyed the wreckage of a plane he purposefully crashed to gain views on YouTube, the US Justice Department announced.
Trevor
Daniel Jacob admitted to Federal authorities he planned to crash his plane in a
video he made to promote a wallet. He later collected the aircraft’s wreckage
and got rid of it to hinder federal investigators from probing the crash site,
according to a news release from the US Attorney’s Office for the Central
District of California.
Jacob, a
pilot and skydiver, agreed to plead guilty to one count of destruction and
concealment with the intent to obstruct a federal investigation, the release
said.
The flight
took place on November 24, 2021. Instead, he “planned to eject from his
aircraft during the flight and video himself parachuting to the ground and the
airplane as it descended and crashed,” according to the statement.
Authorities
said Jacob had put up several cameras in different parts of the plane and took
with him a parachute, video camera and selfie stick.
“Approximately
35 minutes after taking off, while flying above the Los Padres National Forest
near Santa Maria, Jacob ejected from the airplane and videoed himself
parachuting to the ground,” the statement added.
After
parachuting to the ground and recording the crash, he hiked to the wreck and
took the video data of the crash with him, according to the release.
The
YouTuber reported the crash to the National Transportation Safety Board two
days later and agreed to share the site of the wreck with the agency. But he
instead lied to authorities that he did not know where the crash site was and
roughly two weeks later, flew to the site with a friend, loaded up the plane
wreckage and later destroyed it, according to the release, which cites the plea
agreement.
Roughly a
month after the wreck, he uploaded a video on YouTube called “I Crashed My
Airplane,” showing the crash and Jacob parachuting from the plane.
His fans
on YouTube were suspicious of the stunt, with a number of comments pointing out
Jacob was already wearing a parachute, made no attempt to glide the aircraft to
a safe landing area, and took his camera and selfie stick with him when
abandoning the plane.
“Jacob
admitted in his plea agreement that he intended to make money through the
video,” the release added.
He also
admitted to lying to federal investigators after submitting an aircraft
accident incident report and falsely claimed the plane fully lost power roughly
half an hour after takeoff, the news release said.
“Jacob
also lied to (a Federal Aviation Administration) 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,” it added.
Following
the stunt, the FAA revoked Jacob’s pilot license last year, according to the
release. He will appear in court in the coming weeks.
The case
continues.
Trevor Daniel Jacob, a 29-year-old YouTuber who intentionally crashed his airplane while pretending it was an unavoidable accident, has pleaded guilty to federal charges and faces 20 years in prison. pic.twitter.com/QzlNAROu4q
— Citizen Free Press (@CitizenFreePres) May 12, 2023
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