YouTuber Who Crashed Plane For Clicks And Views Could Be Jailed For 20 Years

From getting your girlfriend to shoot you in the chest through an encyclopaedia (turns out books don’t make you smart; he died) to dangling from the world’s tallest buildings and just driving at moronic speeds through city streets, YouTubers have done some crazy things for views. But one of the dumbest and most outrageous stunts involved an intentional plane crash that could land the pilot in jail for 20 years.

Trevor Jacob set off from Lompoc City Airport in California in November 2021 on a solo flight that he claimed would take him to Mammoth Lakes. But 35 minutes into the flight he reported a mechanical failure and bailed out of the plane, whose wing-mounted GoPro cameras recorded the whole story.

The pilot parachuted down safely, leaving the aircraft to plummet into the Los Padres National Forest below. The eventual crash – fortunately, in an uninhabited area – was recorded by a camera on a selfie stick Jacob just so happened to have with him as he descended, and he subsequently hiked to the crash site to recover the rest of the footage.

Related: Watch The Dramatic Moment A Small Plane Crashed Into Traffic On Californian Highway

Unfortunately for the pilot, aviation buffs who watched the footage on YouTube were quick to spot the holes in his story, and the National Transportation Safety Board (NTSB) and Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) were equally quick to begin their own investigations. In a plea agreement Jacob admitted he filmed the stunt to fulfill a sponsorship deal, but he’s in much bigger trouble than simply having his flying license revoked, which already happened last year.

More: Crash For Clicks YouTubers Arrested For Allegedly Causing Intentional Car Accidents

Now Jacob is facing up to 20 years behind bars after admitting to obstructing a federal investigation. When he initially reported the crash to the National Transportation Safety Board, the YouTuber was told that he was responsible for preserving the airplane wreckage for investigation. But Jacob used a helicopter to lift the wrecked plane, which was then illegally taken to a hangar at Lompoc City Airport by a trailer attached to Jacob’s truck, was dismantled and the parts were disposed of.

The irony of the whole story is that more than 18 months after it was uploaded, Jacob’s original video “I Crashed My Airplane” has only been watched a relatively modest 3.1 million times, which is about the number of views Carwow gets for drag-racing three wagons, though that does admittedly also involve a runway.