A 30-year-old former Olympic athlete and YouTuber was sentenced to six months in prison for staging a small plane crash to make the video go viral on social media. Trevor Jacob, an experienced pilot and skydiver, admitted in June that he intestinally crashed his plane in November 2021 to capture the moment on video and gain likes, according to federal prosecutors in California.
He was charged with one count of obstructing a federal investigation by destroying and concealing evidence.
The video titled “I Crashed My Airplane” was released in December 2021 and appeared to show Jacob’s small plane experiencing engine failure over the mountainous Los Padres National Forest in Santa Barbara County.
He then jumps out, holding a selfie stick camera and a parachute that he was already wearing.
The cameras mounted on the plane’s wing and tail captured the moments leading up to the crash and Jacob’s plunge.
According to the government, after landing, he went to the crash site and recovered video from the onboard cameras.
Jacob lied to federal investigators about not knowing the crash site when questioned, federal prosecutors in the Central District of California said on Monday (Dec. 4).
In addition, he had lied to a Federal Aviation Administration safety inspector.
Trevor Jacob committed this offense to generate social media and news coverage for himself
Prosecutors claim Jacob was told days after the crash to preserve the site and notify the National Transportation Safety Board of its location.
Instead, he discovered the crash site and used a helicopter to lift the wreckage out of the Los Padres National Forest on December 10, 2021. Then, prosecutors said, he dismantled and disposed of the wreckage piece by piece in an attempt to thwart the federal investigation.
“It appears that (Jacob) exercised exceptionally poor judgment in committing this offense,” prosecutors argued in a sentencing memorandum.
“(Jacob) most likely committed this offense to generate social media and news coverage for himself and to obtain financial gain. Nevertheless, this type of ‘daredevil’ conduct cannot be tolerated.”
Jacob’s attorneys asked for probation instead of prison time, claiming that the snowboarder was “living alone in his hanger” during the height of the coronavirus pandemic and made a “series of bad choices that culminated in the offense to which he has pleaded guilty.”
Jacob wrote to the judge that he was “sincerely sorry” and that he had “suffered a lot of consequences from this offense.”
