A 30-year-old YouTuber named Trevor Jacob has been sentenced to a six-month jail term for deliberately crashing his airplane to garner views, along with deceiving US investigators regarding the incident.
Jacob initiated a solo flight with cameras affixed to his aircraft from Santa Barbara, California, in November 2021.
The US Attorney’s Office for the Central District of California revealed that Jacob’s intentions were not to complete the flight but to abandon the aircraft mid-flight and capture himself parachuting to the ground, while his plane descended and crashed.
Approximately 35 minutes post-takeoff, the plane crashed into the Los Padres National Forest. Jacob hiked to the crash site, retrieved the footage, and subsequently uploaded the video titled “I crashed my airplane” on YouTube in December.
The video featured a promotional segment for a wallet company, as reported by BBC.
Despite initially framing the event as an accidental occurrence, Jacob was seen in the footage exiting the plane with selfie sticks in hand and parachuting to the ground.
Earlier this year, Jacob admitted guilt to a felony count of destruction and concealment with the intent to impede a federal investigation. In his plea agreement, he acknowledged filming the video as part of a sponsorship agreement with a product.
He expressed humility in the face of the experience and endorsed the sentence as the “right decision.”
“Most likely committed this offence to generate social media and news coverage for himself and to obtain financial gain.
“Nevertheless, this type of ‘daredevil’ conduct cannot be tolerated,” US federal prosecutors in California on Monday said.
