YouTuber who staged plane crash faces up to 20 years jail: U.S. officials

A YouTuber pilot who bailed out midair and deliberately sent his plane crashing into the ground to bolster viewing numbers on his channel could be jailed for up to 20 years, U.S. authorities said Thursday. In a video seen by nearly three million people and entitled 'I crashed my airplane,' Trevor Jacob appears to experience engine trouble while flying over southern California in November 2021. Cameras placed all over the aircraft show its out-of-control descent into the forest, and its eventual crash landing. Viewers see him bush-whacking through poison oak and over hills as he seemingly struggles to find civilization, giving regular updates about how thirsty he is, and how lost he feels. In the weeks after the incident, investigators from the National Transportation Safety Board and the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) launched a probe into the crash, and Jacob was ordered to preserve the wreckage. Over the next few days, he cut up the plane into small pieces, and dumped the parts in trash bins in and around Lompoc City Airport. 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 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.' The YouTuber is expected to formally enter his plea in Los Angeles in the coming weeks, and be sentenced at a later date. Numerous pilots and aviation experts commented that Jacob had failed to take even elementary steps to restart his plane's apparently troubled engine.