YouTuber Who Deliberately Crashed Airplane For Views Admits To Obstructing Federal Investigation (justice.gov) 68
Longtime Slashdot reader UnknowingFool writes: YouTuber Trevor Jacob has pled guilty to felony federal obstruction of an investigation for removing and destroying wreckage of his airplane that he intentionally crashed in November 2021 for online YouTube views. Maximum sentence is 20 years.
On November 24, 2021 Jacob was flying solo from Lompoc City Airport to Mammoth Lakes, California. He reported to the FAA that he had engine trouble and had to abandon the plane using a parachute. After the FAA launched an active investigation, Jacob lied about not knowing the location of wreckage for the next several weeks despite his video footage that he found the wreckage shortly after landing on the ground. On December 10, 2021 Jacob and a friend lifted the wreckage away from the national forest crash site using a helicopter. Jacob transported the wreckage back to Lompoc City Airport with a truck. He then cut up and disposed of the wreckage over then next several days using the airport's trash bins.
On December 23,2021 Jacob posted a YouTube video titled, "I Crashed My Airplane" which showed his account of engine trouble and the crash. Keen viewers were immediately skeptical of Jacob's account of a flight "emergency" noting he had multiple cameras recording the event including a selfie stick and that Jacob was wearing a parachute before the engine trouble occurred. Pilots commented how Jacob failed to follow basic procedures like attempting to restart the plane or contacting air traffic control with a mayday before ditching the plane. Largely based on the his YouTube video, the FAA revoked his pilot's license in April 2022.
On November 24, 2021 Jacob was flying solo from Lompoc City Airport to Mammoth Lakes, California. He reported to the FAA that he had engine trouble and had to abandon the plane using a parachute. After the FAA launched an active investigation, Jacob lied about not knowing the location of wreckage for the next several weeks despite his video footage that he found the wreckage shortly after landing on the ground. On December 10, 2021 Jacob and a friend lifted the wreckage away from the national forest crash site using a helicopter. Jacob transported the wreckage back to Lompoc City Airport with a truck. He then cut up and disposed of the wreckage over then next several days using the airport's trash bins.
On December 23,2021 Jacob posted a YouTube video titled, "I Crashed My Airplane" which showed his account of engine trouble and the crash. Keen viewers were immediately skeptical of Jacob's account of a flight "emergency" noting he had multiple cameras recording the event including a selfie stick and that Jacob was wearing a parachute before the engine trouble occurred. Pilots commented how Jacob failed to follow basic procedures like attempting to restart the plane or contacting air traffic control with a mayday before ditching the plane. Largely based on the his YouTube video, the FAA revoked his pilot's license in April 2022.
Imbalance (Score:3, Insightful)
But insider trading for over $1.5m is just 2 years?
Re:Imbalance (Score:4, Informative)
Inside trading can also get up 20 years [kretzerfirm.com] of jail time. The 2 years you mention is actual sentence, which is often much less than the maximum that can be imposed.
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If you commit insider trading you face 20 years. If you obstruct a federal investigation into it you face an additional 20. There is no Imbalance here.
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Hey, crash a bank for a few ten billions in damage and you do not get punished at all!
Re:Imbalance (Score:5, Interesting)
Jordan Belfort (Wolf of Wall Street) committed massive fraud on the order of hundreds of millions. He got 2-3 years in rich person jail. His cell mate was Tommy Chong who received a sentence of 9 months for selling bongs. Today there’s a bong store at the fucking mall.
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Yes, but if you send an email during insider trading, wire fraud will allow the government to prosecute you for infinite jail time.
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Huge difference. What this asshat did could have sparked a massive wildfire at minimum, but with a plane out of control, a gust of wind and anything else happening in the plane, it could have altered course, and it could have cost people their life. Let alone the environmental impact of the crap the plane would have leaked out into the area....
Truisms exist for a reason (Score:2)
Play stupid games. Win stupid prizes
Re:Truisms exist for a reason (Score:4, Informative)
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Actually, no, please do,film yourself and post it on all your social media accounts.
Convictions are much easier that way. Then the cops and DA can spend their time on real things.
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Actually, no, please do,film yourself and post it on all your social media accounts.
Convictions are much easier that way. Then the cops and DA can spend their time on real things.
Agreed.
Wow. (Score:2)
Cool video - he just got one more view. Absolutely schocking inexcusable behaviour nevertheless.
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For an interesting breakdown of how this is most likely a bunch of fabrication :
https://www.youtube.com/watch?... [youtube.com]
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Re:Dropping things out of the sky is a big no-no. (Score:5, Informative)
No. It was:
They didn't bend over backwards to find something criminal to charge him with, they tripped over everything it was so prolific.
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There's an analysis video recommended by YouTube [youtube.com] that shows the flight path, which was a pretty tight spiral. If that had been stretched out, the plane could easily have landed somewhere with people. I'd say "putting people at risk through deliberate sabotage of the plane you are piloting" is one of those things that they couldn't avoid finding something criminal around; if there wasn't anything to charge him with then someone would be demanding changes in the law.
Re:Dropping things out of the sky is a big no-no. (Score:5, Insightful)
A: Have a pilot friend hide in the back of the plane
B: Fake the engine trouble and jump out
C: Friend flies the plane crazy in the background while you parachute down
D: Friend secretly lands the plane
E:
F: Profit!
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E. Find a broken plane; drive it to the countryside and smash it up. Release video with A-D plus that on YouTube.
Hell, he already used a helicopter in his current plan so he could have done a serious fake without any more expense.
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Also get FAA involvement and a legal consultation for the publicity stunt before hand to stay on the safest side possible. There are all sorts of rules and regulations you want to stay ahead of and this is not one of those areas that you want to be begging for forgiveness later. Entertainment industries have a long history of doing all sorts of seemingly dangerous publicity stunts safely and by the book. Follow their lead and you just might profit rather than finding yourself in jail.
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The worst part is that he probably could have made a nearly similar video without having to crash the plane:
A:... ... ... ... ....
B:
C:
D:
E:
F: Profit!
Even easier:
A: Do it indoors where the FAA has no say [youtu.be]
b: Profit!
(Yeah, he'd already been in trouble with the FAA over something trivial and that was his answer...)
Re: Dropping things out of the sky is a big no-no. (Score:5, Funny)
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I watched that movie dozens a bunch of times as a child. The strange timing changes, watching that guy fiddle with that gate (if I'm recalling correctly).
I don't know if I could watch it again but my memories of it are very pleasant.
Thank you for the memory jolt.
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The gods should have dropped a whiskey bottle (full).
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Especially a non returnable bottle while flying over africa. Some bushmen might get struck and think that the gods have given them a new tool to use, which leads to all sorts of bad behaviors. These things clearly need to be thrown off a cliff. What were the gods thinking? Have they gone crazy?
That only happens in the moive "2001: A Space Odyssey"
Re: Dropping things out of the sky is a big no-no (Score:2)
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There is actually indeed a movie with a story like this, but it is not 2001.
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You could have the FBI considering terrorism charges for dropping leaflets with excerpts of Hazlitt's "Economics In One Lesson" from an airplane. Just one copy fallng into the hands of a Democrat could result in a lifelong case of PTSD.
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Fucking idiot (Score:2)
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These are weird times indeed
A social media platform that charges "customers" nothing to be bought and sold as the actual Product, perpetuates and promotes mass narcissism for the sake of selling ads.
Just curious, who exactly is the "fucking idiot" again in all this? The narcissist, or the society that accepts people being turned into The Product? We're one global food shortage away from Soylent Green with this mentality. Unreal.
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Re:Fucking idiot (Score:5, Funny)
You mean he's a plane idiot and the others are plain idiots?
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You're describing television. Social Media didn't invent it. They just outsourced it for a tiny cut of the profits.
Gotta give props to the guy (Score:5, Funny)
Rarely does someone go to those lengths to hide something they recorded themselves doing and shared on Youtube.
Re:Gotta give props to the guy (Score:5, Funny)
Stupid YouTuber is stupid (Score:2)
He got the views, but does not seem like his cost/benefit analysis will pan out at all.
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He got the views, but does not seem like his cost/benefit analysis will pan out at all.
He'll get a lot more views for his upcoming "taking it in the butt in prison" video - although that may need to go on a different site.
All that work for just 3 million views (Score:5, Insightful)
Honestly, it puts the top Youtube creators into perspective. They can literally get triple those numbers in a hundredth of the time by doing nothing but playing video games and yelling into a microphone.
Other people have to resort to buying planes, flying them, ditching them, jumping out them, then recovering them with a helicopter, then chopping them up in secret, then going to jail.
Maybe, at some point, you have to make an honest evaluation about whether or not the effort is worth the views.
I don't get it (Score:2)
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It's like on Twitter, you can get banned for calling someone a cunt, but you can espouse Nazi views day in day out with no repercussions. Because it's easy to do text search.
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Use classical music in your video and you are punished because someone claims copyright.
Hiring your own orchestra is expensive. Want to use someone else's performance for free? Too bad.
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You can perform it yourself. Its still getting copyright struck. You know that. You are a liar.
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I would file a DMCA counter notice and the video goes right back. That would be the easiest thing I've done all day. Nobody would take it further than that because it's a waste of time.
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Some state outlawed famous criminals from profiting from books they wrote about their crime. It got tossed out because cutting the profit motive impacts the first amendment.
Now filming yourself committing a crime, which you commit for that reason, I dunno if the film's profits can be taken as il gotten gains.
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To be fair, it's far easier to ignore the bozo who yells at a computer game than to do so with someone dropping a plane on you.
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You probably have to spend a few years screaming into the microphone over a game to get up to 3 million.
If you pull a stunt like this, you have a very good chance of getting those views instantly.
Then you go to jail.
new title: (Score:2)
He Did It for Ridge Wallet (Score:2)
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How much are they paying you? And if they aren't, why are you giving them free advertising when they're clearly willing to pay for it?
Didn't Think It Was Positive (Score:2)
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On the one hand, it's newsworthy that a company sponsored this. On the other, naming the specific one made me look them up. Next time I see them online, I may forget why I've heard of them before but I will remember that I've heard of them before - which does gain them credibility.
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Promo code Melon!
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I can't help but notice that most articles fail to name them.
If Ridge Wallet had indeed paid this Youtuber to crash this plane, then why haven't the Feds indicted the Ridge Wallet folks for inciting a Federal crime?
The big question--is it profitable? (Score:1)
How much did he make on youtube, versus how much will he pay in fines and lawyers? How profitable is crashing your plane and covering it up for views?
Is it like a telecom company that illegally steals $200M from it's customers in bullshit fees, and then gets fined $10M from the government?
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His sponsorship deal has to be in the millions. Might still be worth it financially speaking, even after lawyer's fees. Would I spend a year or two in jail in exchange for say $2 million? No. But I'm sure there's people who would.
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What about the accomplice ? (Score:1)
His Insurance won't cover the plane... (Score:1)