Trevor Jacob plane crash video: What did the YouTuber do?

Trevor Jacob, a YouTuber with over 138,000 subscribers, went viral after admitting to staging a video, in which he purposefully crashed an aircraft. According to an official press release from the United States Attorney's Office for the Central District of California, Jacob could potentially face up to 20 years in federal prison for his shenanigans. He has also been found guilty of the offence.

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"Admitted he lied to federal investigators" - Taking a look at what Trevor Jacob did in his staged plane crash video

On December 24, 2021, Trevor Jacob uploaded a video titled, I Crashed My Airplane, which has since received more than three million views on YouTube. As the title suggests, he purposefully jumped out of an in-flight aircraft and documented the event. However, he did not reveal that the entire video was staged and contained promotional content during the shoot.

On May 11, 2023, The U.S. Attorney's Office in the Central District of California issued a press release, stating that Jacob has agreed to plead guilty to a felony charge of deliberately destroying an airplane to gain views. According to the report, the YouTuber received sponsorship to promote a variety of products, including a wallet:

"Had secured a sponsorship from a company that sold various products, including a wallet. Pursuant to the sponsorship deal, Jacob agreed to promote the company’s wallet in a YouTube video that he would post."

The U.S. Attorney's Office's press release regarding the YouTuber 1/2 (Image via www.justice.gov)

In the concluding paragraph, it was stated that Trevor Jacob lied to investigators about where the aircraft wreckage was located. Continuing further, it was also mentioned that the content creator admitted to lying to federal investigators when submitting an accident report.

An excerpt from the press release reads:

"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. 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."

The U.S. Attorney's Office's press release regarding the YouTuber 2/2 (Image via www.justice.gov)

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Online community reacts

Trevor Jacob's admission to fabricating his viral airplane crash video was trending on Twitter. Here's what the online community had to say:

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Trevor Jacob has not been active on YouTube, as the last video he uploaded was on April 22, 2022. At the time of writing, the 29-year-old boasted 19,635,253 channel views.