A 29-year-old YouTuber has agreed to plead responsible to a federal cost after he destroyed the wreckage of a aircraft he purposefully crashed to achieve views on YouTube, the US Justice Division introduced.
Trevor Daniel Jacob admitted to Federal authorities he deliberate to crash his aircraft in a video he made to advertise a pockets. He later collected the plane’s wreckage and removed it to hinder federal investigators from probing the crash web site, based on a information launch from the US Legal professional’s Workplace for the Central District of California.
Jacob, a pilot and skydiver, agreed to plead responsible to at least one rely of destruction and concealment with the intent to hinder a federal investigation, the discharge mentioned.
The flight happened on November 24, 2021. Jacob departed from Lompoc Metropolis Airport, in Santa Barbara County, however he by no means meant to land the plane, he admitted within the plea settlement.
As a substitute, he “deliberate to eject from his plane in the course of the flight and video himself parachuting to the bottom and the airplane because it descended and crashed,” based on the assertion.
Authorities mentioned Jacob had put up a number of cameras in several elements of the aircraft and took with him a parachute, video digicam and selfie stick.
“Roughly 35 minutes after taking off, whereas flying above the Los Padres Nationwide Forest close to Santa Maria, Jacob ejected from the airplane and videoed himself parachuting to the bottom,” the assertion added.
After parachuting to the bottom and recording the crash, he hiked to the wreck and took the video information of the crash with him, based on the discharge.
The YouTuber reported the crash to the Nationwide Transportation Security Board two days later and agreed to share the location of the wreck with the company. However he as a substitute lied to authorities that he didn’t know the place the crash web site was and roughly two weeks later, flew to the location with a good friend, loaded up the aircraft wreckage and later destroyed it, based on the discharge, which cites the plea settlement.
Roughly a month after the wreck, he uploaded a video on YouTube referred to as “I Crashed My Airplane,” displaying the crash and Jacob parachuting from the aircraft.
His followers on YouTube have been suspicious of the stunt, with plenty of feedback declaring Jacob was already sporting a parachute, made no try and glide the plane to a protected touchdown space, and took his digicam and selfie follow him when abandoning the aircraft.
“Jacob admitted in his plea settlement that he meant to become profitable via the video,” the discharge added.
He additionally admitted to mendacity to federal investigators after submitting an plane accident incident report and falsely claimed the aircraft totally misplaced energy roughly half an hour after takeoff, the information launch mentioned.
“Jacob additionally lied to (a Federal Aviation Administration) aviation security inspector when he mentioned the airplane’s engine had stop and, as a result of he couldn’t determine any protected touchdown choices, he had parachuted out of the aircraft,” it added.
Following the stunt, the FAA revoked Jacob’s pilot license final yr, based on the discharge. He’ll seem in court docket within the coming weeks.
The case continues.
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Trevor Daniel Jacob, a 29-year-old YouTuber who deliberately crashed his airplane whereas pretending it was an unavoidable accident, has pleaded responsible to federal prices and faces 20 years in jail. pic.twitter.com/QzlNAROu4q
— Citizen Free Press (@CitizenFreePres) May 12, 2023