A daring YouTuber who purposefully crashed his plane to increase the number of views on his channel and then lied to investigators has been sentenced to six months in prison after negotiating a plea deal.
In the video "I crashed my aeroplane," Trevor Jacob appears to have engine issues while flying over southern California in November 2021.
The stunning clip, viewed millions of times on YouTube, shows Jacob, now 30, ejecting from the single-engine plane while holding a selfie stick and parachuting into the dense forest of Los Padres National Forest.
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"In fact, on December 10, 2021, Jacob and a friend flew by helicopter to the wreckage site," according to the US District Attorney's Office for the Central District of California.
"There, Jacob used straps to secure the wreckage, which the helicopter lifted and carried to Rancho Sisquoc in Santa Barbara County, where it was loaded onto a trailer attached to Jacob's pickup truck."
In an attempt to conceal evidence of the crash, the remains of the single-engine plane were broken into small pieces and deposited in garbage cans at Lompoc City Airport.
The FAA, which oversees aviation in the United States, revoked Jacob's pilot's license in April 2022.
When detectives moved in, Jacob struck a bargain and decided to plead guilty to one count of destruction and concealment with the intent to obstruct a federal investigation.
"Jacob lied to federal investigators when he submitted an aircraft accident incident report that falsely indicated that the aircraft experienced a full loss of power," the US District Attorney's Office said in a statement.
"[Jacob] most likely committed this offense to generate social media and news coverage for himself and to obtain financial gain," federal prosecutors said.
"Nevertheless, this type of 'daredevil' conduct cannot be tolerated."
Pilots and aviation professionals have been harshly critical of Jacob nearly two years after the video was released.
Many others noticed Jacob had not taken the most basic precautions to restart his plane's seemingly ailing engine.
