A YouTuber has admitted to deliberately crashing his plane for YouTube views and has pleaded guilty to obstructing a federal investigation, the US Department of Justice announced.
Trevor Jacob, a former Olympic snowboarder, faces up to 20 years in prison after he purposely destroyed the wreckage of the small single-engine plane that he crashed in California’s Los Padres national forest in November 2021.
He told investigators that his plane lost power and that he did not know where the wreck was during the crash, but investigators found he made no attempt to call air traffic control, restart his engine or search for a safe place to land.
He also put multiple video cameras on different parts of the plane and equipped himself with a parachute, video camera and selfie stick - much to the scorn of the Federal Aviation Administration.
The 29-year-old's video has over 2.9 million views to date.
One of the many cameras shows the propeller appears to stop working, about a minute into the video.
Jacob opens the door, swearing and saying he has an engine out and then jumps from the plane and opens a parachute.
Cameras on board the plane capture its crash landing into the Los Padres National Forest.
He continues to film himself and claims to be without phone signal, so hikes for hours before being rescued in the dark by nearby farmers.
Jacob admitted in his plea agreement that he then "cut up and destroyed the aeroplane wreckage", and then "deposited the detached parts of the wrecked aeroplane into trash bins at the airport and elsewhere."
According to the agreement, Jacob had intended to use the video for a sponsorship deal with an unnamed company that made wallets.
"Defendant intended to make money by promoting the wallet in the video that would depict, among other things, defendant parachuting from the aeroplane and the aeroplane descending and crashing," court documents said.
Jacob’s pilot’s license was also revoked by the Federal Aviation Administration, which used Jacob’s YouTube video as evidence against him.
Mr Jacob is expected to make his initial court appearance in the coming weeks.
His lawyer has not commented on the case yet.
