YouTuber and former Olympian Trevor Jacob has been sentenced to six months in prison after admitting he intentionally crashed his plane.
The 30-year-old California man downed his plane intentionally while filming a stunt in Santa Barbara County on November 24th, 2021, according to the news release from the Department of Justice, published Monday. Jacobs also hid the evidence from the investigators as well.
Jacob pleaded guilty on June 30 to one count of destruction and concealment with the intent to obstruct a federal investigation, according to the U.S. Attorney’s Office for Central California.
In a sentencing memorandum, the prosecutors said the Lompoc man “most likely committed this offense to generate social media and news coverage for himself and to obtain financial gain.”
“Pursuant to the sponsorship deal, Jacob agreed to promote the company’s wallet in a YouTube video that he would post,” the U.S. Attorney’s Office said.
“It appears that [Jacob] exercised exceptionally poor judgment in committing this offense,” they said, adding that this daredevil-style conduct “cannot be tolerated.”
Jacob put numerous cameras inside the plan before taking to the skies, according to the DOJ. The former Olympian took off from Lompoc City Airport purpotedly for a trip to Mammoth Lakes.
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Instead, Jacob intentionally crashed the plan that landed in a dry brush of the Los Padres National Forest. The YouTuber also got video of himself parachuting to the ground after ejecting from the plane.
Once landed, Jacob hiked over the wreck “and recovered the data containing the video recording of his flight and the crash of the airplane,”the U.S. Attorney’s Office said in Monday’s release.
On Dec. 23, Jacob posted a video named “I Crashed My Airplane” that showed him “parachuting from the plane and the aircraft’s subsequent crash,” per the release. It also “contained a promotion of the wallet” that Jacob intended to profit from. The video has since been removed from YouTube.
In an aircraft accident incident report, Jacob “falsely indicated that the aircraft experienced a full loss of power approximately 35 minutes after takeoff,” according to Monday’s news release. He offered a similar story to a safety inspector from the Federal Aviation Administration, as well.
For weeks, Jacob told investigators that he did not know where the wreckage was located. Yet, the YouTuber had returned to the crash site to remove any remains of the plane and later discarded the evidence.
On December 10th, Jacob and a friend flew via helicopter to the wreckage site and picked up the remains and carried them to Rancho Sisquoc in Santa Barbara County, according to the DOJ.
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Jacob then “drove the wreckage to Lompoc City Airport and unloaded it in a hangar,” where he “cut up and destroyed” the evidence. Over the next few days, he “deposited the detached parts of the wrecked airplane into trash bins” both at the airport and elsewhere.
The FAA revoked Jacob’s pilot license in April of 2022. More than a year later, he pleaded guilt to obstructing the investigation, which carried a maximum sentence of 20 years in federal prison.
