YouTuber Trevor Jacob admits he staged 2021 California plane crash for online views

A YouTuber and pilot has pleaded guilty to deliberately crashing his plane in California and destroying the wreckage in late 2021 as a sponsorship stunt.

Former Olympic snowboarder Trevor Daniel Jacob, 29, of Lompoc, Calif., pleaded guilty to a felony charge of destruction and concealment with the intent to obstruct a federal investigation — a charge that carries a maximum 20 years in federal prison, according to the U.S. Department of Justice on Thursday.

The video, published in late 2021 titled “I Crashed My Airplane,” shows Jacob parachuting from his plane and its subsequent crash. It was part of a corporate sponsorship to promote a wallet, according to Jacob’s plea agreement. As of Friday afternoon, the video had racked up over 3.3 million views.

On Nov. 24, 2021, Jacob, an “experienced pilot and skydiver,” took off from California’s Lompoc City Airport on a solo flight bound for Mammoth Lakes, several hundred miles away. He had no intention of reaching this destination, according to the release.

Before taking off, Jacob outfitted his plane with several cameras and equipped himself with a video camera, selfie stick and parachute. Then, approximately 35 minutes after takeoff, the YouTuber ejected from his plane high above Los Padres National Forest near Santa Maria.

Jacob proceeded to film his plane crashing into a dry brush area of the forest, as well as his own parachute landing. The cameras on his plane captured it all. The Justice Department states he then hiked to the wreckage and recovered the video recordings on board.

In Jacob’s video, the YouTuber shows off several scratches he got during his parachute landing, as well as his trek through the forest. “I’m just so happy to be alive,” he says after the crash. Seemingly hours later after nightfall, Jacob’s video shows him noticing headlights in the distance as he’s “rescued” by locals.

Two days later, the YouTuber notified the National Transportation Safety Board of his crash, and agreed to provide the agency both the wreckage’s co-ordinates and the videos of the crash. Instead, over the following weeks, Jacob lied to investigators saying he didn’t know where the plane was, prosecutors said.

In reality, on Dec. 10, 2021, Jacob and a friend helicoptered to the crash site and airlifted the wreckage to Rancho Sisquoc in Santa Barbara Co., where it was loaded onto a trailer and driven to a hanger in Lompoc City Airport, according to the release. Jacob then cut up his airplane and, over several days, disposed of the parts in multiple trash bins in the airport and elsewhere.

About two weeks later, on Dec. 23, 2021, Jacob’s video was published.

According to Jacob’s plea agreement, the YouTuber admitted to destroying and hiding his plane’s wreckage to prevent federal authorities from investigating the crash. He also admitted to falsifying his aircraft accident incident report by claiming his plane suffered a full loss of power about 35 minutes after takeoff.

“Jacob also lied to an FAA aviation safety inspector when he said the airplane’s engine had quit and, because he could not identify any safe landing options, he had parachuted out of the plane,” the release continued.

The Federal Aviation Administration revoked Jacob’s pilot licence in April of 2022.

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