from Hacker News

YouTuber who staged plane crash faces up to 20 years jail

by tafda on 5/11/23, 10:29 PM with 544 comments

  • by Namari on 5/12/23, 10:14 AM

    Taken from youtube comments: > For anyone wondering why the FAA yanked his license.

    1) attached multiple cameras to the craft (not illegal but suspect)

    2) Wearing a sports parachute (there uncomfortable as hell and he never wore any chute on any other flight)

    3) opened the side door before claiming any engine failure.

    4) made no attempt to restart engine

    5) made no attempt to find a safe landing spot even though there were multiple landing areas in easy gliding distance

    6) jumped out of the plan with a selfie stick which is not normal behaviour during a crisis .

    7) Made his way to the wreck and took all the cameras

    8) had the wreck disposed of before contact the authorities .

    9) made no attempt to communicate on emergency frequency

    None of which deals with the fact he had fire extinguishers strapped to his legs since that not technically illegal or the deliberate crashing of his plane into national reserve.

  • by fatneckbeard on 5/12/23, 11:55 AM

    It's funny how if you are a major corporation with fat government contracts you can systematically destroy your engineering department, ostracize whistleblowers, and wind up killing hundreds of people and nobody gets punished and the FAA will even be on your side, like the Boeing thing.

    but if you make a youtube stunt that hurts nobody you can get 20 years in prison and the FAA acts like you besmirched the stellar reputation of the aviation industry.

  • by koito17 on 5/12/23, 7:54 AM

    I remember first seeing the video of the guy crashing his plane. It's one of the rare times I opened up yt-dlp just to download the video and archive it, because I was expecting him to take down the video after sufficiently many people caught on to the act.

    While a maximum of 20 years prison sounds rather harsh, intentionally crashing a plane is no joke or laughing matter. It's unfortunate that things had to end this way. The FAA does not mess around.

  • by rbosinger on 5/12/23, 12:04 AM

    > Over the next few days, he cut up the plane into small pieces, and dumped the parts in trash bins in and around Lompoc City Airport.

    I once helped a friend do something like this with a bunch of garbage from a house party he threw at his parents place and wanted to cover up. We drove around dropping bits of the 10+ bags of trash in bins here and there. I'm in awe imagining doing this with a plane.

  • by neom on 5/12/23, 12:45 AM

  • by bambax on 5/12/23, 8:52 AM

    > Over the next few days, he cut up the plane into small pieces, and dumped the parts in trash bins in and around Lompoc City Airport.

    Marvelous! Like an ordinary criminal trying to dispose of the body.

    He may have thought no body, no crime? but that doesn't work very well when said crime is filmed start to finish and published on Youtube...

  • by duxup on 5/11/23, 11:21 PM

    The strange thing about it was that the video was so odd.

    Dude was filming himself flying, the engine stops… and all of a sudden he decides to bail out.

    No effort to do anything, he just bails out.

    I don’t know why he thought his video would even seem realistic.

  • by nraynaud on 5/12/23, 9:53 AM

    A bit of context is that the FAA doesn't want plane crashes at all (unless you're NASA), even "safe ones" because of the public image, so it's extremely difficult to get a waiver for a stunt if there is a real risk of crashing an airplane, even if it's empty and as safe as possible, it's not about safety, it's about public image. People afraid of flying are a very difficult crowd to manage.

  • by d--b on 5/12/23, 8:42 AM

    The one question no one seems to ask is: are youtube views really worth a plane? Did this guy also try to defraud his insurance?

  • by pigbearpig on 5/11/23, 11:17 PM

    This is a plea deal, no one is going to plea to the maximum, which in this case is 20 years. The punishment can also be a fine [1], which may be fitting if the goal was profit from a YouTube video.

    When news articles mention the maximum, especially in headlines, it feels a bit misleading. It seems there's a decent chance there is little or no prison.

    [1]https://www.law.cornell.edu/uscode/text/18/1519

  • by waiwai933 on 5/11/23, 11:13 PM

    20 years is the maximum, not what he'll get. Skimming the Federal Sentencing Guidelines, I make it:

    * A base level of 14 for an obstruction of justice charge (§2J1.2)

    * -2 for acceptance of responsibility (§3E1.1)

    Assuming no previous criminal history, that's a guideline sentence of 10-16 months. If he can get it down one more point to a level 11 sentence, that's a Zone B sentence and can be entirely served on probation.

    The DoJ press release is at https://www.justice.gov/usao-cdca/pr/santa-barbara-county-ma..., but the plea agreement isn't available (yet), which would indicate if they've agreed on an offence level and any adjustments.

    EDIT: Found the plea agreement; see comment in thread

  • by bmurray7jhu on 5/12/23, 12:24 AM

    This search warrant has details not in the plea agreement.

    https://storage.courtlistener.com/recap/gov.uscourts.cacd.85...

  • by astura on 5/11/23, 11:28 PM

    Really surprised the reupload of the video still up - https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=vbYszLNZxhM

    The original version had some silly BS "I'm so brave for posting this video always wear a parachute (even though I don't in any other video)" text at the beginning and a ridge wallet sponsorship.

  • by avazhi on 5/12/23, 12:23 AM

    Remember boys, don’t fuck with the FAA.

    I hope Mr Jacobs ends up serving several years (5-10 seems reasonable) to very strongly dissuade others from having similar ideas in the future. General aviation is already a relatively high risk activity without bringing reckless attention whoring influencers into the equation.

  • by dmitrygr on 5/11/23, 10:49 PM

    Curiously, the charge he pled guilty to as part of the plea deal has nothing to do with planes. He pled guilty to obstructing a federal investigation (of the crash). Makes sense. Proving his intent w.r.t. the crash back then would be harder than proving that he DID remove the wreck and subsequently destroyed it.

  • by tptacek on 5/11/23, 11:13 PM

    "Could be sentenced to" or "faces" means literally nothing.

    https://www.popehat.com/2013/02/05/crime-whale-sushi-sentenc...

  • by hammyhavoc on 5/11/23, 11:04 PM

    People do some bizarre stuff in the name of clickbait.

  • by ftxbro on 5/12/23, 1:40 AM

    I remember being taught about "yellow journalism" in the 1890s history chapter in school. Maybe in the future they will have some name for the kind of influencer culture or sponsored deceptive clickbait youtubing illustrated in this article and they will teach about it in some history chapter in schools.

  • by gnicholas on 5/12/23, 12:39 AM

    > Jacob admitted he...had created the video to make money through a sponsorship with a wallet company.

    How much money would the sponsor have paid, and would it have been worth more than the cost of the crashed plane? I have no idea what planes cost, or how much sponsors pay, but this struck me as unlikely to be profitable (even before the costs of his criminal prosecution).

  • by can16358p on 5/12/23, 1:07 PM

    It was a terrible and a stupid, not-well-though stunt.

    Absolutely terrible.

    Though, what damage other than crashed debris in a remote land, is exactly done?

    Not to support the act anyway, but as long as no one got hurt, one may not face 20 years jail time for crashing their own plane in a remote land.

    Stupid? Absolutely.

    Illegal? Shouldn't be.

  • by ilyt on 5/12/23, 12:20 AM

    Wow, so he did some utterly dumb thing then... doubled and tripled down on other dumb things.

  • by acd on 5/12/23, 10:37 AM

    Youtube acts as social media. Its an attention economy. I think there is something wrong with advertisement combined with social media.

    What I think is wrong is that as long as there are viewers algoritms promotes content which get a lot of viewers.

  • by tibbydudeza on 5/12/23, 7:53 AM

    Well it worked out better than somebody who tried to repeat the telephone book stunt in the Sopranos (Phil Leotardo shoots somebody through a telephone book at close range to make his point about next time)

    Youtuber forgot it was a tv stunt.

  • by throwaway5752 on 5/12/23, 2:10 AM

    What a trash person. Cutting up the plane and distributing the wreckage. They clearly knew it was a crime. I hope they get the upper bounds of the sentencing guidelines.

  • by tintedfireglass on 5/15/23, 5:11 AM

    Just a small question. Why does crashing a plane cause such a huge discussion and such an impressive sentence? unless someone causes damage to any public or private property while crashing the plane it's a harmless thing to do. Who is it hurting and why is the YouTuber punished?Curious.

  • by mcfedr on 5/12/23, 10:56 AM

    What is the sponsor getting? They presumably knew what they were paying for, a hefty fine in their direction seems very appropriate

  • by grecy on 5/12/23, 6:49 AM

    FWIW, the video of the "crash" has 3 million views, which earned him roughly $30,000 from YouTube direct revenue alone.

  • by jwilk on 5/12/23, 8:14 AM

  • by sundarurfriend on 5/12/23, 6:47 AM

    > Trevor Jacob (born August 6, 1993) is an American snowboard cross competitor, extreme sports athlete, YouTuber, and former aircraft pilot.

    For anyone else wondering if it's a YouTuber they know. It seems more like they're an athlete that dabbles in YouTube and got famous for this one video.

  • by atum47 on 5/12/23, 1:05 PM

    I think the 20 years is more to make an example out of him. In those days where people eat soap, put themselves in danger, harass police officers and even crash planes to get views / attention, this kind of sentence will put fear in people, I think.

  • by PaulHoule on 5/12/23, 2:04 PM

  • by diebeforei485 on 5/11/23, 11:34 PM

    I think this guy should spend a weekend behind bars. What he did was quite dangerous.

  • by jacquesm on 5/12/23, 9:33 AM

    There were two of these, one guy crashing his plane over land (this guy) and another iirc that did the same thing over the sea. Anybody know what happened with that second guy?

  • by wodenokoto on 5/12/23, 4:17 AM

    I’m not trying to insinuate that coming clean would have absolved him, but I do wonder what it would have looked like if he admitted to investigators that he crashed the plane on purpose.

  • by M3L0NM4N on 5/12/23, 6:18 AM

    Anyone following this from the beginning knew it was fake. Glad he tacked on another charge by pleading guilty to obstruction of the investigation.

  • by 93po on 5/12/23, 4:21 PM

    Another story of why you should never talk to the police (or investigators of any kind). This kid would have been fine if he didn't fucking say anything to them.

  • by omega3 on 5/12/23, 11:01 AM

    They should follow the money and look into the sponsor as well.

  • by shapefrog on 5/12/23, 7:50 AM

    Please enter a plead - Not guilty by reason of its a prank bro.

  • by solotronics on 5/12/23, 3:33 PM

    Is it actually even illegal to crash a plane on purpose? Plane companies do this all the time for testing purposes, albeit in a controlled manner.

  • by testfoobar on 5/12/23, 1:17 AM

    Not a pilot. Could he have landed that plane safely in the valley below him from that altitude with a dead engine?

  • by renewiltord on 5/11/23, 11:55 PM

    Interesting, considering he could have saved up to 7 billion lives through this act and been a real hero.

  • by pm3003 on 5/12/23, 11:50 AM

    He's a top contender for the Internet's most hated person....

  • by curiousgal on 5/12/23, 6:48 AM

    The only shocking thing about the story is him being 29 years old

  • by mdwalters on 5/14/23, 1:53 PM

    youtubers nowadays would do anything for a sponsorship

  • by ineedasername on 5/12/23, 1:17 AM

    Seems like yet another game of:

    Play stupid games;

    Win stupid prizes

    ~

    Just… stupid

  • by everyone on 5/12/23, 6:38 AM

    Nice! What an idiot.

  • by captainkrtek on 5/11/23, 11:08 PM

    Intentionally crashing a plane into a national park, in a state that deals with lots of wildfires, is incredibly reckless. Lucky no one got killed, or that a wildfire didn’t start.

  • by gavinhoward on 5/12/23, 2:09 AM

    This case infuriates me.

    At the time, I had just finished sending in an appeal to being denied a medical clearance to become a pilot because of a history of clinical depression.

    That appeal required undergoing a battery of tests, a psychological evaluation, multiple meetings with a therapist and a report from the same, and 15 hours of flight instruction plus a report of my performance by the flight instructors.

    I intended to be professional. Everyone thought I was safe to fly.

    I nevertheless thought the FAA would deny my appeal. I was right. [1]

    So because I once had clinical depression, I can't get a medical. And yet, yahoos like this get to fly simply because stupidity and malice isn't as well-documented as a history of mental illness. Sigh...

    To be clear, I don't think the FAA is at fault here; they didn't know, and they acted fast once he did it. They did a great job.

    I just wish they would let me fly.

    [1]: https://gavinhoward.com/2022/09/grounded-for-life-losing-the...

  • by zerohp on 5/11/23, 10:49 PM

    Good. Make an example out of him.

  • by thrill on 5/11/23, 11:00 PM

    Harsh, but fair.

  • by ectospheno on 5/12/23, 12:59 PM

    Thought exercise: List all crimes for which five years in prison would be a deterrent for you but one year in prison would not.

    My list is zero entries. Perhaps sentencing guidelines are just us spanking people and not actually a deterrent.

    Please post your list when responding.

  • by FreeCodeFreak on 5/12/23, 8:28 AM

    20 years is outrageous and very unlikely given his probable experience and making sure no one would be hurt. There is a vast difference in crashing an airplane over a populated area, intentionally wanting to cause harm, and it being accident. Afaik this area is not even populated.

    If such a thing happened by accident, you should not get 20 years. If you did so intentionally wanting to cause harm, them perhaps you should get 20+ years, because that would be an act of terrorism. If someone got killed, you should probably not get your freedom back.

    Journalists need to always mind the context and emphasize the likelihood of what will be the outcome. It is not really truthful to bluntly state he faces 20 years. If he were to actually get 20, the legal system would obviously be severely flawed. There are murderers that get 20 ffs.