In a shocking turn of events, 30-year-old YouTuber Trevor Jacob has been sentenced to six months in jail for intentionally crashing his plane in a bid to garner views for his channel.
The incident took place in November 2021 when Jacob, a resident of Santa Barbara, California, embarked on a solo flight with mounted cameras on his aircraft.
The US Attorney’s Office for the Central District of California revealed that Jacob had no intention of reaching his destination; instead, he planned to eject from the plane mid-flight, capturing the entire stunt on camera as he parachuted to the ground.
The crash occurred 35 minutes after take-off, in the Los Padres National Forest.
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Following the crash, Jacob hiked to the crash site, retrieved the footage, and uploaded a video titled “I crashed my airplane” to YouTube on December 23, 2021.
The video, which has since been removed, not only documented the crash but also included a promotion for a wallet company.
In December 2021, Jacob initially presented the incident as an accident, sharing a video that garnered millions of views.
However, he later pleaded guilty to one felony count of destruction and concealment with the intent to obstruct a federal investigation earlier this year.
In his plea agreement, Jacob admitted filming the video as part of a product sponsorship deal.
US federal prosecutors in California expressed their stance on the matter, stating that Jacob “most likely committed this offense to generate social media and news coverage for himself and to obtain financial gain.”
They emphasized that such daredevil conduct cannot be tolerated.
Before the video was taken down, it had accumulated nearly three million views, raising concerns about the lengths some content creators may go to for online engagement and financial gain.
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