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A US MAN faces up to 20 years in prison for deliberately crashing his plane into the ground, after he bailed out midair, to boost views on his YouTube channel.
In a video seen by nearly three million people and entitled “I crashed my airplane,” Trevor Jacob appears to experience engine trouble while flying over southern California in November 2021.
The dramatic footage shows Jacob, 29, ejecting from the single engine plane — selfie-stick in hand — and parachuting into the dense vegetation of the Los Padres National Forest.
Cameras placed all over the aircraft show its out-of-control descent into the forest, and its eventual crash landing.
Jacob films himself hiking to the wreckage where he appears dismayed to discover the water he packed has disappeared.
Viewers see him bush-whacking through poison oak and over hills as he seemingly struggles to find civilization, giving regular updates about how thirsty he is, and how lost he feels.
Finally he stops to scoop water from a stream, and moments later comes across a vehicle and apparent salvation as night falls.
In the weeks after the incident, investigators from the National Transportation Safety Board and the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) launched a probe into the crash, and Jacob was ordered to preserve the wreckage.
The YouTuber told officials he did not know where the plane had gone down, but, according to a plea deal lodged in Los Angeles, two weeks after the drama he and a friend winched the wreckage out of the forest with a helicopter, having earlier recovered data from the onboard cameras.
Over the next few days, he cut up the plane into small pieces, and dumped the parts in trash bins in and around Lompoc City Airport.
The FAA, the body that regulates flying in the United States, yanked Jacob’s pilot’s license in April 2022.
In a plea agreement, Jacob admitted he had intended to obstruct federal authorities when he disposed of the wreckage, and had created the video to make money through a sponsorship with a wallet company.
“Jacob further admitted he lied to federal investigators when he submitted an aircraft accident incident report that falsely indicated that the aircraft experienced a full loss of power approximately 35 minutes after takeoff,” a statement from the Department of Justice said.
“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.”
He has agreed to plead guilty to one count of destruction and concealment with the intent to obstruct a federal investigation, a crime that carries a statutory maximum sentence of 20 years in federal prison.
The YouTuber is expected to formally enter his plea in Los Angeles in the coming weeks, and be sentenced at a later date.
The video he posted, which can be seen here, attracted a lot of criticism in the weeks and months after it was published.
Numerous pilots and aviation experts commented that Jacob had failed to take even elementary steps to restart his plane’s apparently troubled engine.
Others pointed out that he could easily have safely glided the plane to a landing spot, and that wearing a parachute while flying a small aircraft was highly unusual.
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See, this is what happens when you slag off the red line.
Ha exactly.
Yup… those red liners will be laughing all the way to the post office or the methadone clinic this Wednesday morning wondering just what exactly is this ‘work’ thing that their South Dublin counterparts are so concerned to be missing.
Red Line is South Dublin from Saggart to Houston Station. At least consult a compass when composing your slurs!
Autocorrect thinks it’s in Texas.
Very funny Drew … not.
Drew the south Dubliners have to “work” as you put it to afford the shed loads of cocaine every weekend!
Aye we do…. For taxes purposes though we’re working to afford our ‘columbian overseas foreign aid’ donation.
Running the red line through gang territory has now paid off. Its so used to gun shots puny lightening doesn’t frighten it
Was there not a stabbing on the green line recently????
Another blow in who probably doesn’t have a clue..
There was, my comment was tongue in cheek (written onboard a red line tram)
The new machine gun turret on top will have that sorted .
Funny too, Felix. We might be posting from the same train.
**looks around nervously**
@ Shane Walsh only spotting your comment now:
If using the red line since its inception in 2004 first for school & college, and now to go to work making in excess of 460 trips per year (allowing for annual leave/bank holidays) for the last 6/7yrs qualifies me as a blow in so be it
Good response to my early morning moany reply. Remind me to shake your hand at the Kingswood Stop in the morning ;) ;)
^^^now thats freaky!! :-)
hahahaha :) :) :) Happy Wednesday.
Shussss don’t tell anyone
Threw a fuse in her. Be grand. If she keeps blowing throw a bit of fag paper or a 10 mil bolt in her. Also be grand. Ish.
Its same problem as yesterday. They dont have the skills to repair. Any technical fault and they have to go to the foreign companies that built it. Makes you wonder why they pay local engineers? After last nights investigations they have just madw the problem worse by disabling the whole line.
Fragile wee thing that Luas….
This is obviously God’s way of telling liberal South Dublin to vote No! Subtle, but I get the message.
Not a bad thing, considering that Enda’s gang were lying in wait to ambush the electorate for a vote on something that they dont really give a s**t about.
It’s that Breda O’brien playing with the new testiment weather kit …
It’s running again now
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