The Court of the Central District of California has sentenced a YouTuber to six months in federal prison for a deliberate plane crash arranged for views on the Internet. In May of this year, 30-year-old Trevor Daniel Jacob pleaded guilty to obstructing a federal investigation into the incident after he provided false information about the location of the wreckage and claimed engine failure was the cause of the crash.
According to the U.S. Attorney’s Office, Jacob deliberately planned to eject from his plane and film himself parachuting to the ground during a solo flight on November 24, 2021. Several video cameras were installed on the plane before takeoff. These, along with a camera on a selfie stick held by Jacob after ejecting, were used to record the plane’s descent and fall into the Los Padres National Forest.
After reporting the “accident” to the National Transportation Safety Board (NTSB) on November 26, Jacob agreed to provide NTSB investigators with the coordinates of the crashed plane and video footage. Jacob later said he did not know the crash site, even though he collected the wreckage with a helicopter on Dec. 10 and dumped it in trash cans around the Lompoc airport. On December 23, 2021, a video titled “I Crashed My Plane” was uploaded to his YouTube channel, showing footage of the crash and Jacob’s parachute landing, as part of a sponsorship deal to promote the company’s wallet.
During the investigation, the prosecutor’s office said that Jacob “most likely committed this crime in order to provoke information about himself in social networks and in the news, as well as to obtain financial benefit”, and emphasized that such behavior cannot be tolerated. The blogger’s actions could have potentially harmed air traffic, property or security, and a national forest.
The pilot crashed the plane for YouTube views and can “sit down” for 20 years
Source: The Verge
