(Los Angeles) A youtubeur, also an airplane pilot, who had voluntarily sent his plane crashing to the ground while escaping from it in full flight, before posting the video on the internet, risks up to twenty years of jail, US authorities said Thursday.
In his video viewed nearly 3 million times, entitled “I crashed my plane”, the youtubeur films himself in full flight over California, in November 2021.
Trevor Jacob seems to have a technical problem during the flight and ends up ejecting from the plane – pole at selfie by hand — to land, by parachute, in the middle of nature.
The aircraft crashes spectacularly in the Los Padres National Forest – all filmed by cameras placed on the aircraft.
Trevor Jacob then walks to the wreckage, where he discovers, looking disappointed, that the stock of water he was carrying has disappeared.
Viewers then see him progressing through bushes, over hills and seemingly struggling to regain civilization. He explains being thirsty, feeling lost.
A few weeks later, federal agencies launched an investigation to clarify the circumstances of the crash. Trevor Jacob had been ordered to keep the wreckage of his plane.
The YouTuber said he didn’t know where the plane crashed, but, according to court documents, he and a friend pulled the wreckage out of the forest using a helicopter two weeks after the incident.
He then cut the plane into small parts, threw them in trash cans.
Trevor Jacob admitted that he wanted to hinder the progress of the investigation by getting rid of the wreckage, and that he made the video to earn money as part of a partnership with a company.
He also admitted to lying when he gave investigators a report that the plane had encountered a technical problem, according to a statement from the Ministry of Justice.
The YouTuber pleaded guilty to destroying and concealing evidence for the purpose of obstructing a federal investigation, a crime punishable by a maximum sentence of twenty years in prison.