YouTuber Speaks Out Before Going To Prison For Crashing A Plane For Views!

Before being locked up for the next six months for intentionally crashing a plane to get views online, YouTuber Trevor Jacob is speaking out!

Back in 2021, the 30-year-old social media personality posted a video titled “I Crashed My Airplane” that showed him flying and crashing a single-engine aircraft in California’s Los Padres National Forest. He managed to jump out of the plane with a parachute before the plane slammed into the ground. The entire ordeal was meant to appear like he miraculously survived a plane crash. However, it turned out he intentionally planned the whole stunt to get views and advertising money! Yeah, did this extremely dangerous stunt on purpose for a little bit of attention on social media…

An investigation was launched against Trevor – and the government soon found out he lied about the crash! The former Olympian reported the crash two days afterward, claiming he lost engine power and did not know where the wreckage was. However, that was not the case. Two weeks later, Trevor and a friend flew to the crash site to collect the evidence. They then went to the airport, where they got rid of it:

“Jacob drove the wreckage to Lompoc City Airport and unloaded it in a hangar. He then cut up and destroyed the airplane wreckage and, over the course of a few days, deposited the detached parts of the wrecked airplane into trash bins at the airport and elsewhere.”

He ended up pleading guilty to one count of destruction and concealment with the intent to obstruct a federal investigation in June 2023. In December, he was sentenced to six months in prison. The Federal Aviation Administration revoked his pilot license in April of last year. However, Good Morning America reported that Jacob has since gotten it back. Wow. He got very lucky.

Before beginning his prison sentence on January 29, Trevor decided to talk about the situation for the first time in an interview with GMA on Friday. And he knows he “made the biggest mistake of” his life. The snowboarder told the outlet:

“When I jumped out of the plane, I jumped and I’m like, ‘You just made the biggest mistake of your life.’ … I did pretend the engine died and made the saga of the video… When I jumped out of that plane I had no idea I’d committed any type of crime whatsoever – it turned out that I actually committed five felonies.”

He should have realized organizing a whole plane crash was a bad idea in the first place! Beyond the legal ramifications, not only could he have hurt himself, but he could have harmed someone else in the area! But Trevor insisted he “made sure that there was no fuel in the plane, made absolutely sure that there was nobody in that vicinity” before doing the stunt. Hmm. Despite knowing he made a mistake, Jacob explained to GMA he still posted the video since he “was just grateful to be alive” and thought he “may as well put this online.” Seriously?

Ultimately, Jacob said he takes “full responsibility” for his actions and does not “think that this type of behavior is okay.” He then had a message for everyone, especially children to “learn from this mistake”:

“Let’s not get in this disgusting feedback loop of dopamine and adrenaline and views and likes, and I’m happy to be looked at as the idiot to show kids, ‘Hey, don’t do this type of stuff.’”

At least Trevor can admit he messed up, we guess. In all seriousness, though, no one should ever go to these dangerous lengths for views. It is so not worth it. Watch the entire interview (below):