YouTuber Deliberately Crashes Plane into Los Padres National Forest for the Views

cageymaru

cageymaru

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29 year old YouTuber Trevor Jacob is facing up to 20 years in prison and numerous fines for deliberately crashing a plane into the Los Padres National Forest according to The United States Attorney’s Office for the Central District of California. The viral video star seemed to lack a bit of business and legal acumen as he "pleaded guilty to a felony charge of obstructing a federal investigation after admitting to intentionally crashing the plane to get views on his YouTube channel, the United States Department of Justice announced." One of the driving forces behind the push to get more exposure was monetary rewards from sponsorships for a wallet and other items dependent on the view count of the video. He repeatedly lied about many aspects of the crash including where it occurred, the location of the storage facility for the wreckage, cutting up the wreckage to dispose of it when the NTSB wanted it preserved, etc. This was all done to obstruct the investigation into the crash.





On November 24, 2021, Jacob took off in his airplane from Lompoc City Airport on a solo flight purportedly destined for Mammoth Lakes. Jacob did not intend to reach his destination, but instead planned to eject from his aircraft during the flight and video himself parachuting to the ground and his airplane as it descended and crashed, he admitted in the plea agreement

Prior to taking off, Jacob mounted several video cameras on different parts of the airplane and equipped himself with a parachute, video camera and selfie stick. Approximately 35 minutes after taking off, while flying above the Los Padres National Forest near Santa Maria, Jacob ejected from the airplane and videoed himself parachuting to the ground.

Using the video camera mounted on the selfie stick and the video cameras he mounted on the airplane, Jacob was able to record the airplane as it descended and crashed into a dry brush area in Los Padres National Forest. After parachuting to the ground, Jacob hiked to the location of the wreck and recovered the data containing the video recording of his flight and the crash of the airplane, the plea agreement states.
 
Who?

I didn't know that there were YouTubers aside from this list!

For real though, I have never heard of this guy. I stick to a couple of conspiracy channels and Kentucky ballistics.
 
We used to do it all for the nookie, now we do it all for the views.
Normally not keen on there being much jail time for victimless crimes, but sometimes, the stupidity deserves to be rewarded with a long stint away from the rest of civilization.
 
Saw that a long time ago and immediatly knew it was a stunt from the obvious's. I guess if done remote enough he thought he could get away with it. Fact is "flight stuff" is hard core looked into and he left an obvious trail of non compliance. Besides there is never a safe crash. So much to go wrong. Hell even though he shut down the engines it could have easily started a forest fire, or a bit of bad luck and he could have deleted himself. Narcissism crossed with sociopathy is a bad drug.
 
I remember seeing this and thinking it looked staged. I obviously don't have all of the info, but looks like that was seemingly the case. Or enough evidence to put him away.

Really dumb. If you can afford general aviation and planes in the first place, crashing planes for Youtube attention is really dumb.
 
I mean yeah, maybe he gets 20 years in jail, but like, think about all of those awesome likes and views he got! Serious dopamine boost! #blessed
 
As stupid as it is, I don't see anything negative that actually happened besides his plane being destroyed. 🤷‍♂️
 
Tengis said:
As stupid as it is, I don't see anything negative that actually happened besides his plane being destroyed. 🤷‍♂️
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Crashed into a national forest that is (and was especially at that time) extreme risk for wildfires, encouraging others to do the same, the potential for collateral damage from an uncontrolled aircraft (which have flown for a long time before - it's what they're good at, after all) going down somewhere completely unintentional, lying to the NTSB and the FBI, lying to the FAA, violating FAR, wasting a great deal of federal resources investigating (have to make sure this was not a fault of the aircraft that would require an airworthiness directive or NOTAM), and hell - not simply arranging permission ahead of time.

If you want to crash your plane, you can - you just have to arrange a location, the appropriate safety personnel, and FAA approval ahead of time.
 
Flogger23m said:
Really dumb. If you can afford general aviation and planes in the first place, crashing planes for Youtube attention is really dumb.
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I can't substantiate it, but I read he bought this plane for $5,000, and several articles mention sources saying it needed major maintenance. That's not too big of a cost for a YouTube stunt... if only it had been done properly (which probably means getting a permit to crash it in Mexico, cause sounds like the FAA is not happy to issue those kinds of permits). Getting a GA license and throwing it away is, of course, a giant waste of money and time though.
 
Meh. All I saw was a mountainous wasteland with absolutely zero chance of the aircraft hitting anything/anyone of importance. He didn't actually start a fire so meh 🤷‍♂️.

What he did is dumb as hell, but potential 20 years is ridiculous. I've seen dumber YouTuber stunts actually hurt other people and putting property at risk and nothing ever comes of it.
 
toast0 said:
I can't substantiate it, but I read he bought this plane for $5,000, and several articles mention sources saying it needed major maintenance. That's not too big of a cost for a YouTube stunt... if only it had been done properly (which probably means getting a permit to crash it in Mexico, cause sounds like the FAA is not happy to issue those kinds of permits). Getting a GA license and throwing it away is, of course, a giant waste of money and time though.
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The plane, iirc, wasn’t certified to fly currently. Behind on maintenance. Which is another fine but whatever.

The FAA will issue permits for it - they’re just expensive and complex because airplane! You have no idea where it’s going to come down, and something like the Taylor craft in question catching beneficial winds and good updrafts could theoretically glide for hundreds of miles… which opens up the risk profile massively.
 
lopoetve said:
If you want to crash your plane, you can - you just have to arrange a location, the appropriate safety personnel, and FAA approval ahead of time.
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It's the same thing with burning things. You can burn down your house if you want as long as you make all the arrangements with appropriate personnel ahead of time (and also don't try to make an insurance claim against it...they frown upon that).
 
These are federal charges, so there will be no plea bargains, no reductions in sentence.

As far as I'm concerned, he's a stupid "kid" (at the age of 29) who did something truly stupid just for internet fame. I personally think that a 20 year sentence is a bit too much (I would have guessed 10 years were appropriate), but when you play stupid games, you're going to win the stupid prize eventually.

Someone once said that if I can't say something nice about someone, that I shouldn't say anything. I'll say this, that he's going to be 50 years old by the time he gets out of Club Fed, and is a good bad example of how someone just pissed away the prime years of his life. Maybe other Youtubers seeking instant fame and glory can learn something from this moron.
 
When they say "up to 20 years" I assume that's the lazy journalistic trick of looking at the standard sentencing range for all the things he's charged with and then adding up all the maximum sentences. Generally people who don't have a criminal history don't wind up with the maximum--he might ultimately be sentenced to something in the 4-10 year range unless the DA wants to make an example of him.
 
Mood:

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