By David Shepardson
WASHINGTON (Reuters) – The pilot of a small private plane who posted a video of himself intentionally crashing his airplane in California and then destroyed the wreckage has agreed to plead guilty to a felony charge, the U.S. Justice Department said on Thursday.
Trevor Daniel Jacob, a 29-year-old “YouTuber pilot,” from Lompoc, California, agreed to plead guilty to obstructing a federal investigation by deliberately destroying the wreckage of a Taylorcraft BL-65 that he intentionally crashed in Santa Barbara County to gain online views, federal prosecutors said and court documents showed.
Prosecutors said Jacob, an experienced pilot, skydiver and former Olympic snowboarder, posted an Alphabet YouTube video after the crash as part of a corporate promotion.
On Nov. 24, 2021, Jacob took off from an airport in Lompoc on a solo flight purportedly destined for Mammoth Lakes, California. He has admitted, however, that he planned to eject during the flight and video himself parachuting to safety and his plane crashing into the ground, according to his plea agreement.
Prior to departure, Jacob mounted several video cameras on different parts of the plane. Approximately 35 minutes after taking off, he ejected over a national forest and made the video of himself parachuting to the ground, the plea agreement said.
Jacob recorded the plane descending and crashing. After reaching the ground, he recovered data containing the video recording of his flight.
He initially agreed to help determine the crash location and provide coordinates of the downed plane and videos of the crash to National Transportation Safety Board investigators, but then told them he did not know the wreckage’s location, according to the plea deal. He lied about the cause of the crash to the Federal Aviation Administration, which launched its own investigation, according to the plea deal.
Jacob and a friend flew by helicopter to the wreckage site and recovered the wreckage, which Jacob later destroyed, the department said.
On Dec. 23, 2021, Jacob uploaded a YouTube video titled, “I Crashed My Airplane,” which showed him parachuting and the subsequent crash. A version of the video still on YouTube has nearly 3 million views.
The FAA revoked Jacob’s pilot license in April 2022. A lawyer for Jacob did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
(Reporting by David Shepardson; Editing by Paul Simao)
