2023-05-12 04:08:00
Defendant Trevor Jacob/From Trevor Jacon/YouTube
2023.05.12 Fri posted at 13:08 JST
（ＣＮＮ） A 29-year-old YouTuber has pleaded guilty to a plea bargain following he was charged with intentionally crashing a small plane he was piloting and destroying the wreckage of the plane in order to increase the number of views on YouTube. The Department of Justice announced on Nov.
The federal prosecutor for the Central District of California said in a statement that the accused pilot and skydiver was Trevor Jacob. In response to his inquiry, he admitted that he planned the crash in order to increase his video revenue. The wreckage of the plane was later recovered and destroyed to prevent investigators from investigating the scene.
In a plea bargain, Jacob agreed to plead guilty to sabotage and concealment with intent to obstruct an investigation, according to a statement.
The aircraft piloted by Jacob took off from an airport in Santa Barbara County, California on November 24, 2021. But he had no intention of landing the plane, and planned to film himself exiting mid-flight and parachuting, as well as filming the plane as it crashed to the ground.
Jacob installed several cameras on the plane and carried a parachute, a video camera and a selfie stick.
About 35 minutes following takeoff, Jacob exited the plane over the Los Padres National Forest near Santa Maria and filmed himself parachuting.
It is said that following descending to the ground and filming the crash, he walked to the location of the wreckage and took away the video data of the crash.
Two days later, Jacob reported the crash to the National Transportation Safety Board (NTSB) and agreed to provide the location of the crash. However, he lied that he did not know the crash site, and regarding two weeks later, he and his friend flew to the site to collect the wreckage, which was later disposed of.
About a month following the crash, he posted a video on YouTube of the crash and of himself parachuting.
However, many viewers were suspicious of the video, noting that Jacob was wearing a parachute from the beginning, that he was not seen trying to land the plane in a safe place, and that he was taking selfies with cameras. A series of comments pointed out that he had escaped with a stick.
“Jacob accepted a plea bargain and admitted that he intended to make money through this video,” prosecutors said in a statement. He also admitted to lying to investigators following filing the crash report and falsely claiming that the plane’s engines stopped regarding 30 minutes following takeoff.
Jacob was also accused of “lying to (FAA) aviation safety inspectors that he had parachuted out of the plane because the plane’s engines had stalled and no way might be found to land it safely.” be.
The FAA revoked Jacob’s pilot license last year, prosecutors said in a statement.
YouTuber crashes own plane, FAA says it was ‘intentional’
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