Ready to do anything to boost your audience? It seems that YouTuber Trevor Jacob went a little too far when he crashed his tourist plane in California before posting the video on his channel. He faces up to twenty years in prison, U.S. authorities said Thursday.
In his video seen nearly 3 million times, entitled "I crashed my plane", the youtuber, also an airplane pilot, films himself in full flight over California, in November 2021. Trevor Jacob seems to encounter a technical problem during the flight and ends up ejecting himself from the plane - selfie stick in hand - to land, by parachute, in the wilderness.
The plane crashes dramatically into the Los Padres National Forest - all filmed by cameras placed on the plane. Trevor Jacob then walks to the wreckage, where he discovers, looking disappointed, that the stock of water he was carrying has disappeared.
Viewers then see him progress through the bushes, crossing hills and seeming to struggle to regain civilization. He explains that he is thirsty, feels lost.
He had disposed of the wreckage
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 fact. He then cut the plane into small pieces, thrown into garbage cans.
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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 for the purpose of obstructing a federal investigation, a crime punishable by up to twenty years in prison.