A YouTuber pilot who intentionally bailed out of his plane in midair, causing it to crash into the ground, could face up to 20 years in prison after agreeing to plead guilty to obstructing a US investigation.
The incident was documented in a video with the title “I crashed my airplane,” which received close to three million views.
In the footage, Trevor Jacob, 29, is seen flying over southern California in November 2021 and having engine trouble. Then, while holding a selfie stick, he jumps out of the plane and parachute into a national forest’s lush vegetation.
The dramatic crash landing was captured by cameras placed inside the plane, and Jacob records his subsequent journey through challenging terrain as he struggles to find civilization.
In the aftermath, an investigation was launched by the National Transportation Safety Board and the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA). Jacob, who had initially claimed ignorance about the crash site, eventually retrieved the wreckage with a helicopter and disposed of it in various locations.
The FAA, the body that regulates flying in the United States, yanked Jacob’s pilot’s license in April 2022.
In a plea agreement, Jacob admitted he had intended to obstruct federal authorities when he disposed of the wreckage, and had created the video to make money through a sponsorship with a wallet company.
“Jacob further admitted he lied to federal investigators when he submitted an aircraft accident incident report that falsely indicated that the aircraft experienced a full loss of power approximately 35 minutes after takeoff,” a statement from the Department of Justice said.
“Jacob also lied to an FAA 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.”
He has agreed to plead guilty to one count of destruction and concealment with the intent to obstruct a federal investigation, a crime that carries a statutory maximum sentence of 20 years in federal prison.
Jacob is expected to formally enter his plea in Los Angeles in the coming weeks, and be sentenced at a later date.
