The Secondary Perils of Deliberately Crashing Aircraft

The U.S. Department of Justice (DOJ) announced on 11 May 2023 that a YouTuber who deliberately crashed an airplane for purpose of increasing his online viewership has agreed to plead guilty to a felony charge of obstructing a federal investigation.

Trevor Daniel Jacob, 29, of Lompoc, California, who—in addition to the aforementioned, willfully destroyed the wreckage of the crashed aircraft—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 twenty-years in federal prison.

A plea agreement and a one-count information charging Jacob were filed in the U.S. District Court of Los Angeles on Wednesday, 10 May. Mr. Jacob is expected to make his initial court appearance in the coming weeks.

In his plea agreement, Jacob—who purports to be an experienced pilot and skydiver—sets forth he destroyed the aircraft to promote a product made by a company from which he and his YouTube channel had secured sponsorship.  

On 24 November 2021, Jacob departed Lompoc City Airport (LPC) in a Taylorcraft BL-65 ostensibly destined for Mammoth Yosemite Airport (MMH). Prior to taking off, the young man mounted several video cameras without and within the aircraft. In point of fact, Jacob, the aircraft’s sole occupant, had no intention of reaching his flight-plan destination.

Approximately 35-minutes after departing LPC, Jacob leapt from the aircraft, parachuting safely to Earth as the Taylorcraft descended, empty and unguided, coming catastrophically to ground in a dry brushy area within the Los Padres National Forest.

Upon himself reaching the ground under canopy, Jacob hiked to the aircraft’s crash-site.

On 26 November 2021, Jacob made the National Transportation Safety Board (NTSB) aware of the accident—more or less. The NTSB, in accordance with its charter, commenced investigating the report straight away, but not before informing Jacob he was personally responsible for preserving the Taylorcraft’s wreckage pending examination by the Board’s personnel.

Jacob agreed and provide both the coordinates of the downed airplane and videos of the crash to NTSB investigators. Three days later, the Federal Aviation Administration launched its own investigation of the occurrence.

Over the following weeks, Jacob lied repeatedly to federal investigators, stating he was unaware of the wreckage’s location.

On 10 December, in a paroxysm of gall and outright stupidity, Jacob and a friend utilized a helicopter to airlift the Taylorcraft’s wreckage to Rancho Sisquoc, where they loaded it onto a trailer hitched to Jacob’s pickup truck.

Jacob subsequently drove the wreckage to Lompoc City Airport, unloaded it in an aircraft hangar, and over a period of time measurable in days, destroyed it. Those remnants of the airplane he couldn’t eradicate wholly, Jacob deposited in trash bins around the airport. In his plea agreement, Jacob admitted his actions were undertaken with the intention of obstructing federal authorities’ investigations of his stunt.

On 23 December 2021, in a secondary triumph of dim-wittedness, Jacob uploaded a YouTube segment titled, I Crashed My Airplane. The video depicted its creator promoting a brand of wallet before leaping from the aircraft and parachuting to safety as the doomed airplane hurled Earthward and crashed. Jacob confessed in his plea agreement that he’d undertaken the ill-advised enterprise to make money.

Jacob further admitted to falsifying an accident report in which he attributed the mishap to in-flight engine-failure. What’s more, Jacob lied to an FAA aviation safety inspector, stating he’d bailed out of the Taylorcraft after failing to identify a suitable emergency landing locale.

The FAA revoked Jacob’s pilot certificate in April 2022—not that he’ll be needing it for the next two-to-twenty years.

FMI: www.ntsb.gov