YouTuber pleads responsible to deliberately crashing his aircraft for a pockets sponsorship

Within the newest proof that satire isn’t any match for at present’s actuality, The DOJ announced {that a} YouTuber pled responsible on Wednesday to obstructing a federal investigation by destroying the wreckage of an airplane he intentionally crashed for views and sponsorship cash. Trevor Jacob, a 29-year-old former professional snowboarder turned YouTuber, recorded and uploaded his staged (but very actual) crash touchdown in Santa Barbara County, CA, in November 2021.

Jacob pled responsible to at least one depend of destruction and concealment with the intent to impede a federal investigation, which carries a most sentence of 20 years in federal jail, as first reported by Gizmodo. He admitted in his plea settlement that his motive was benefiting from a pockets promotion hooked up to the video.

Earlier than retreating, Jacob geared up the aircraft with video cameras whereas arming himself with a parachute, video digicam and selfie stick. He ejected himself from the plane about 35 minutes into the flight, recording himself parachuting to the bottom because the aircraft crashed right into a dry brush space in Los Padres Nationwide Forest. (A dry brush space in wildfire nation seems like a terrific place to ship an plane to its fiery demise.) He then hiked to the crash scene to get better his cameras and recordings.

Sadly, that wasn’t the tip of Jacob’s wallet-shilling shenanigans. He then waited two days to report the incident to the Nationwide Transportation Security Board (NTSB); within the report, he incorrectly described it as an accident. Then, after the NTSB advised him he was answerable for preserving the wreckage for examination, he returned to the crash scene by helicopter, which he used to airlift the wreckage to a neighborhood winery and vineyard. There, he loaded it onto a trailer hooked up to his pickup truck and hauled it to Lompoc Metropolis Airport, the place he lower the aircraft’s stays into items, dumping them into close by trash bins. Round this time, he lied to investigators, telling them he didn’t know the place the wreckage was.

Nonetheless wanting to make sure the pockets sponsorship cash made its method to his pockets, Jacob uploaded the YouTube video “I Crashed My Airplane” on December twenty third, 2021. The video remains to be up and has tallied 3.3 million views. Throughout a clip of his lengthy hike again to civilization after the touchdown, Jacob says, “I’m so previous the purpose of even saying I’m exhausted… however I noticed a cow.”