VIDEO. A youtuber stages the crash of his plane for a video and risks 20 years in prison

A YouTuber, also an airplane pilot, who had voluntarily sent his aircraft crashing to the ground by escaping in mid-flight, before posting the video on the Internet, faces up to twenty years in prison, said Thursday the US authorities. In his video viewed nearly 3 million times, titled "I crashed my plane," YouTuber Trevor Jacob filmed himself flying over California in November 2021.

In the video, Trevor Jacob seems to encounter a technical problem during the flight and ends up ejecting from the plane - selfie stick in hand - to land, parachute, in the wilderness. The plane crashes dramatically into the Los Padres National Forest - all filmed by cameras placed on the plane.

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A few weeks later, federal agencies launched an investigation to clarify the circumstances of the crash. Trevor Jacob had been ordered to keep the carcass of his plane. The YouTuber said he did not 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 pieces, thrown into garbage 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 make 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 Justice Department. The YouTuber pleaded guilty to destroying and concealing evidence in order to obstruct a federal investigation, a crime punishable by up to twenty years in prison.