Global Courant 2023-05-12 08:26:49
Trevor Jacob filmed his plane as it crashed into the mountainside in November 2021.YouTube/Trevor Jacob
YouTuber pilot Trevor Jacob admits crashing his plane on purpose to get views, according to the DOJ.
According to the DOJ, he had secured a sponsorship deal for his channel to promote a wallet in his videos.
Jacob also confessed that he had tried to cover up the crash by retrieving and dismantling the plane wreckage.
A YouTuber who wrecked his plane in California admitted he orchestrated the crash to get more views, the Justice Department said.
Trevor Jacob, 29, who is also a former Olympic snowboarder, filmed himself jumping out of his single-prop plane above the Los Padres National Forest in November 2021.
He then uploaded a video titled “I Crashed My Plane” to his YouTube channel, which has about 137,000 subscribers.
Now Jacob pleads guilty to one count of vandalism and concealment with intent to obstruct a federal investigation, and faces up to 20 years in prison, the Justice Department wrote in a Thursday statement.
Jacob admitted to authorities that he wanted to monetize the video of the crash and had signed a sponsorship deal to promote a wallet on his channel, the statement said.
He also confessed to falsifying an accident report he filed after the crash and lying to investigators, according to the Justice Department.
Jacob is expected to appear in court in “the coming weeks”, the Justice Department added.
How Jacob orchestrated the crash and then tried to cover it up
The YouTuber’s 12-minute video, which has 2.97 million views, shows him taking off from Lompoc City Airport and heading towards Mammoth Lakes. While flying over a mountain range, Jacob holds up a plastic bag containing the ashes of his friend, base jumper Johnny Strange, who died in 2015.
The video then shows the propeller of Jacob’s plane coming to a slow stop. The influencer pilot swears several times and says he “has got an engine off”, before opening the plane door. He jumps out with a parachute and films his descent with a selfie stick.
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Cameras installed on the unmanned aerial vehicle then show the aircraft flying into the mountainside.
After landing, Jacob tells the camera that he has no mobile coverage and goes for a walk for several hours.
“I’m exhausted. I’m so thirsty. I’m scared, I’m in trouble, I’ve been cut all over,” says Jacob halfway through his journey. “The only option I have is to crawl through these bushes like I’ve been doing for the past five hours.”
In the video, he is also seen finding the wreckage of his plane.
The Justice Department noted that Jacob went back to the plane to retrieve footage of the crash.
Weeks after the crash, Jacob told investigators he would help them find the wreckage, but then said he didn’t know its location, according to the department.
In reality, he and a friend flew by helicopter to the wreckage site and took the plane to a hangar at Lompoc City Airport, authorities said. Jacob then dismantled the plane and threw the parts into trash cans, according to the DOJ.
Jacob’s video initially drew skepticism from other aviation YouTubers, who noticed that he had already unlocked the aircraft door before the engine allegedly failed. They also found it suspicious that Jacob was flying a skydive parachute, which small plane pilots don’t normally wear, and was not looking for a safe place to land, despite satellite photos showing several ideal spots nearby.
The Federal Aviation Administration revoked Jacob’s pilot’s license in April 2022 while investigating his crash.
Jacob’s admission contradicts his January statement The New York Times. “I’ll be happy to say I didn’t crash my plane on purpose for views on YouTube,” he told the outlet, saying he has a habit of “filming everything I do.”
His attorney, Keri Axel, did not immediately respond to Insider’s request for comment, which was sent outside of regular business hours.
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