YouTuber facing 20 years in prison after pleading guilty to intentionally crashing his plane

The rise of social media platforms has given birth to a new wave of content creators seeking fame and fortune by any means necessary. Unfortunately, some are willing to cross the line between entertainment and criminality to achieve their goals, as exemplified by the case of Trevor Jacob. The 29-year-old former professional snowboarder turned YouTuber recently pled guilty to obstructing a federal investigation by destroying the wreckage of an airplane he intentionally crashed for views and sponsorship money.

In a twisted bid for online notoriety, Jacob recorded and uploaded his staged crash landing in Santa Barbara County, CA, in November 2021. He has pled guilty to one count of destruction and concealment with the intent to obstruct a federal investigation, which carries a maximum sentence of 20 years in federal prison.

Equipped with video cameras, a parachute, and a selfie stick, Jacob took off in the plane, which he had rigged to crash. Thirty-five minutes into the flight, he ejected himself from the aircraft, recording himself parachuting to the ground as the plane crashed into a dry brush area in Los Padres National Forest. Jacob then hiked to the crash site to recover his cameras and recordings, but that was only the beginning of his criminal activity.

Rather than report the incident to the National Transportation Safety Board (NTSB) immediately, as he was required to do by law, Jacob waited two days and then lied about the nature of the crash. When the NTSB instructed him to preserve the wreckage for examination, Jacob returned to the site by helicopter, airlifted the wreckage to a local vineyard and winery, loaded it onto a trailer attached to his pickup truck, and hauled it to Lompoc City Airport. There, he cut the plane's remains into pieces and dumped them into nearby trash bins.

Despite his efforts to conceal his crime, Jacob ended up uploading the video titled "I Crashed My Airplane" on December 23rd, 2021, which has since amassed over 3.3 million views. In the video, Jacob boasts about his stunt and even lies to his audience, claiming that the crash was an accident.

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