A 29-year-old YouTuber, Trevor Daniel Jacob has admitted to Federal Authorities that he intentionally crashed a plane in order to gain views on his YouTube channel.
Trevor Daniel Jacob, who is a pilot and skydiver, had planned to eject himself from the plane mid-flight and film himself parachuting to the ground as the aircraft descended and crashed.
He has pleaded guilty to one count of destruction and concealment with the intent to obstruct a federal investigation after he crashed a plane he was flying on purpose to gain views on YouTube.
Before the flight took place on November 24, 2021, Jacob had put up several cameras in different parts of the plane and took with him a parachute, video camera and selfie stick.
After parachuting to the ground and recording the crash, he hiked to the wreck and took the video data of the crash with him.
He reported the crash to the National Transportation Safety Board two days later but lied to authorities that he did not know where the crash site was and later flew to the site with a friend, loaded up the plane wreckage, and destroyed it.
His fans on YouTube were suspicious of the stunt, with a number of comments pointing out Jacob was already wearing a parachute, made no attempt to glide the aircraft to a safe landing area, and took his camera and selfie stick with him when abandoning the plane.
Jacob admitted in his plea agreement that he intended to make money through the video and lied to federal investigators after submitting an aircraft accident incident report and falsely claimed the plane fully lost power roughly half an hour after takeoff.
Following the stunt, the FAA revoked Jacob’s pilot license, and he will appear in court in the coming weeks.
Watch the video below:
Trevor Daniel Jacob, a 29-year-old YouTuber who intentionally crashed his airplane while pretending it was an unavoidable accident, has pleaded guilty to federal charges and faces 20 years in prison. pic.twitter.com/QzlNAROu4q
— Citizen Free Press (@CitizenFreePres) May 12, 2023
KanyiDaily had also reported how a six-year-old YouTube star, Boram Ki from South Korea purchased a five-story building in Seoul worth 9.5 billion Korean won ($8 million or over Rs 55 crore) in 2019.