Youtuber and former Olympic athlete Trevor Jackson have been sentenced to serve six months in prison for intentionally crashing a plane in one of his YouTube videos.
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On June 30, Trevor Jacob pleaded guilty to one count of destruction and concealment with the intent to obstruct a federal investigation. As previously reported, the California resident intentionally crashed his plane while filming the stunt on November 24, 2021, and hid the evidence from investigators. According to PEOPLE, a sentencing memorandum said prosecutors claimed Jacob most likely committed the offense to gain social media fame and money in hopes that the video would go viral.
Additionally, the U.S. Attorney’s Office said Jacob set up multiple cameras inside the plane before taking off from Lompoc City Airport for a scheduled trip to Mammoth Lakes. After intentionally crashing the aircraft near the Los Padres National Forest, he walked to the wreck and “recovered the data containing the video recording of his flight and the crash of the airplane.”
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The now-deleted video was uploaded on YouTube on Dec. 23 under “I Crashed My Airplane” and showed Jacob parachuting from the plane. There was also a promotion for a wallet in the video.
The FAA revoked Jacob’s pilot license in April 2022, and he previously faced a maximum of 20 years in federal prison after pleading guilty to obstructing the investigation.
“On November 26, 2021, Jacob informed the National Transportation Safety Board (NTSB) about the plane crash. The NTSB, which launched an investigation into the crash on or about that same day, told Jacob that he was responsible for preserving the wreckage so the agency could examine it. Jacob agreed to determine the crash location and provide both the coordinates of the downed plane and videos of the crash to NTSB investigators. Three days later, the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) launched its own investigation into the plane crash.”
