In case any readers need reminding: please do not intentionally crash your small prop plane into a national forest for the social media likes. If you somehow still choose to abandon commonsense in the hopes of gaining an ad sponsorship, at the very least, do not lie to the National Transportation Safety Board about your stunt. And, if absolutely nothing else, definitely do not treat your plane’s wreckage like you’re covering up a murder scene. You will probably go to prison.
Case in point: Trevor Jacob, a 30-year-old online YouTuber sentenced on Monday to six months in prison in the ensuing aftermath of his 12-minute YouTube video, “I Crashed My Airplane.”
News of Jacob’s punishment arrived in a Monday Department of Justice announcement, via The Verge. The “experienced pilot, skydiver, and former Olympic athlete” first uploaded his video-turned-felonious evidence to the platform on December 23, 2021. The footage, taken from multiple video cameras mounted to his single-prop Taylorcraft BL-65 and a camera attached to a selfie stick, shows Jacob abandoning his flight midair due to an alleged power failure (later revealed to be false) and unfurling a parachute above California’s Los Padres National Forest near Santa Maria. Jacob captures brief shots of the plane’s uncontrolled descent as he floats to the ground, while onboard cameras record the subsequent crash landing in dry brush within the federally protected area.
Jacob only informed the NTSB of the crash two days later, at which time the agency told Jacob to preserve the wreckage and provide coordinates to its location—neither of which he did, says the DOJ.
Jacob instead “lied to investigators” for weeks, claiming he could not find the crash site. Meanwhile, he and a conspirator flew a helicopter back to the plane’s remains, strapped the…
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