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Three million views on YouTube could cost 20 years in prison for pilot Trevor Jacob, who intentionally crashed his plane in November 2021 and then posted the video on the platform, boosting views. The man would also have obstructed the federal investigation.
i crash In November 2021, Jacob took off from Lompoc Airport in Southern California in a small, single-engine airplane equipped with cameras. After 35 minutes of flight, he had parachuted before the plane crashed in Los Padres National Forest and was still filming himself with a video camera. As soon as he touched the ground, the pilot returned to the scene of the accident and recovered the video, which was then published on Youtube. The video quickly reached 3 million views, but also aroused initial suspicions among the authorities. In fact, Jacob had not attempted to call air traffic control, nor had he attempted to restart the engine or search for a safe landing spot.
The attempts to mislead According to investigators, the man initially said the accident was due to a loss of engine power. He also said he didn’t know where the wreck went. However, the federal investigation found that after a few weeks, Jacob and a friend returned to the crash site and together they towed the downed plane to Santa Barbara County, where it was stored in the hangar, then dismembered and dumped in the garbage cans in an attempt to derail it the ongoing investigations. Jacob admitted he wanted to hamper investigations by disposing of the wreckage – a crime punishable by up to 20 years in prison – and that he made the video to make money as part of a partnership with a company. He also admitted to lying when he told investigators that the plane had a technical problem. In April 2022, the Federal Aviation Administration revoked his pilot’s license.