Trevor Jacob/YouTube
A YouTuber was sentenced to six months in federal prison Monday after he filmed himself intentionally crashing a plane and then lied to investigators about it and even tried to secretly dispose of the wreckage.
Trevor Jacob, 30, had pleaded guilty in June to a count of destruction and concealment with the intent to obstruct a federal investigation over the crash two years ago, California prosecutors said in a news release. The former Olympic snowboarder initially told authorities the incident was an accident but later admitted that he deliberately staged the crash to make a video titled “I Crashed My Airplane” and promote a sponsorship deal with a wallet company.
The YouTube video, which racked up millions of views after it was uploaded in December 2021, showed Jacob pretending to lose power during the flight before jumping out of the plane—selfie stick in hand—and filming himself parachuting to the ground.