A FORMER Olympian who deliberately crashed his plane in California has been jailed
Pilot Trevor Jacob, 30, has been sentenced to six months inside after he purposely destroyed the plane to promote a brand and get more views on YouTube.
Jacob, who represented the USA in snowboarding at the 2014 Winter Olympic Games in Sochi, also destroyed the wreckage and lied to investigators in order to attempt to cover his tracks.
The video, titled ‘I crashed my plane’, was published on the video sharing platform nearly two years ago and attracted four million views.
Shortly after the solo flight took off from Lompoc City Airport in California, Jacob said: “I’m over the mountains and I have an engine out.”
What followed certainly made for enthralling viewing as Jacob bailed out for the plane, selfie stick in hand and parachuted to safety, while his plane (with further cameras) ploughed into a mountainside in the national park.
However the Federal Aviation Administration (FFA) immediately smelled a rat.
In their report they observed that the number of cameras in place, the fact that he was already wearing a parachute, that he had a selfie-stick to hand and the act of opening the door mid-flight, prior to the alleged engine failure, collectively raised skepticism about the authenticity of his claimed emergency.
Furthermore, investigators discovered that he did not make any effort to communicate with air traffic control, initiate engine restart procedures, or identify a secure landing spot.
The FAA told Jacobs: “There were multiple areas within gliding range in which you could have made a safe landing.”
After the crash, the FAA reported that Jacob also “recovered and then disposed of the wreckage,”
Revoking his pilot’s licence, they concluded that he operated the aircraft in a “careless or reckless manner so as to endanger the life or property of another”.
They added: “You demonstrated a lack of care, judgment and responsibility by choosing to jump out of an aircraft solely so you could record the footage of the crash.
“Your egregious and intentional actions on these dates indicate that you presently lack the degree of care, judgment and responsibility required of a certificate holder.”
The United States Attorney’s Office added: “Jacob did not intend to reach his destination, but instead planned to eject from his aircraft during the flight and video himself parachuting to the ground and his airplane as it descended and crashed.”
Jacob, who admitted his crimes, has responded in the only way he knows how, by posting a video. He told followers about his imprisonment: “You gotta get beat down and broken down to come back stronger, I didn’t know a human being could go through this … and endure the suffering and pain this has caused me. But I needed it. I deserved it.”
