Trevor Jacob, the pilot who intentionally crashed his airplane in an attempt to make money on YouTube, has been sentenced to jail for six months. The sentence was handed down by the U.S. District Court for the Central District of California on December 4 and, in addition to incarceration, calls for two years of supervised release and a $100 special assessment.
According to the FAA, Jacob went through the process of obtaining his pilot certificate again following the revocation of his certificate after the crash in November 2021. FAA regulations allow a pilot whose certificate has been revoked to go through the process of completing training and taking the written and practical tests again a year after a revocation, provided no drug or alcohol offense was involved. Jacob has done that, and the FAA issued him a private pilot certificate because it has been more than a year since the April 11, 2022 revocation.
On Nov. 20, 2021, Jacob took off from California’s Lompoc Airport in his 1940 Taylorcraft BC-12 single-engine airplane and, when over the Los Padres National Forest, he filmed himself exiting and then parachuting from the airplane after a supposed engine failure. The video shows the propeller stopped, which could have been an attempt to stretch the glide or due to the engine seizing (if it really did fail). Then, Jacob exits the airplane while carrying a camera that he uses to film himself parachuting to the ground. Another camera is mounted to the wing strut facing the left door through which he exits the Taylorcraft.
According to the FAA’s emergency order of revocation, “Prior to this flight, you attached multiple cameras to the outside of N29508, including a camera pointed in the direction of the propeller, in order to record video footage of the outside and inside of the plane during flight. Prior to this flight you put on a sport parachute backpack container.”
The order further notes that Jacob made no attempt to contact air traffic control on the emergency frequency, nor did he attempt to restart the engine after the propeller stopped, and he didn’t look for a suitable emergency landing location “even though there were multiple areas within gliding range in which you could have made a safe landing.”
According to the U.S. Department of Transportation Office of Inspector General, after the Taylorcraft crashed, “Jacob recovered and destroyed the wreckage and later lied to investigators about not knowing the location of the wreckage. According to the information filed, Jacob altered, destroyed, mutilated, concealed, and covered up the Taylorcraft…with the intent to obstruct NTSB and FAA investigations regarding the crash.”
Jacob’s YouTube channel remains active and the “I Crashed My Airplane” video is still online, now with more than 4.5 million views. At an average of about $20 per 1,000 views, Jacob likely earned around $90,000 for his stunt.