Youtuber under investigation on suspicion of faking his own plane crash in the US

A former Olympian is under investigation in the United States after aviation experts raised suspicions that he could have orchestrated the crash of his own plane to gain engagement on his YouTube channel. Trevor Jacob, 28, snowboards and participated in the Winter Games in Russia in 2014.

At the end of December, the former athlete published a video in which he abandoned a Taylorcraft BL64 model aircraft, which he said had been affected by an engine failure. On the occasion, recorded a month before the post, Jacob was flying over Los Padres National Forest in California. A few minutes later, however, the video cuts to a scene in which the youtuber jumps out of the plane with a parachute and lands in the forest hills.

At the same time, the vehicle starts to fall to pieces – there was a camera with Jacob and others fixed to the aircraft. At the beginning of the filming, the American comments on the weather and says he took with him the ashes of a friend who died in 2015 in a wingsuit, a suit used by paratroopers to glide during freefall. The ashes would be scattered across the landscape during the plane ride.

The video, whose comments have been disabled, currently has 1.1 million views. Jacob’s YouTube channel has 130,000 subscribers, almost double what it had in March, according to the latest reproduction of the Way Back Machine platform, when it had around 76,000 followers.

After the jump, according to the youtuber, he spent hours walking in search of help. “I’m exhausted. I’m so thirsty. I’m scared, I’m in trouble, I’m all cut up,” he said. “The only option I have is crawling through these bushes like I’ve been for the last five hours. I’m in pain, man. I’m in pain. Whatever I’m going through I don’t wish on anyone.”

The journey, like the video, ends when Jacob encounters a stream and then a man who claims to be a farmer. Before jumping, the former athlete is not seen trying to call for help over the aircraft’s radio.

After the publication, carried out on the 24th, other youtubers and experts were skeptical about the alleged accident. The US Federal Aviation Agency then confirmed that it would investigate the episode, according to aviation news website AVWeb.

Professional drone pilot and YouTuber, Trent Palmer, posted a video on the 6th in which he notes that Jacob appeared to have unlocked the aircraft door before the engine even failed. He was also surprised by the fact that at no time did the former athlete look for a safe place to land – according to Palmer, there was an area in the region where landing was possible.

Dan Millican, another youtuber who records aviation videos, noted that, unlike Jacob, pilots in general do not usually carry a parachute with them, because the device can be very heavy and interfere with the flight. He also agreed that it was safer to try to land than to jump, as the aircraft would continue to hover in the air for some time.

According to Insider, Jacob is not the first YouTuber accused of staging an accident to gain followers. In 2019, former professional skier David Lesh sparked controversy when he made an emergency landing on a beach near San Francisco, California. At the time, he said that the plane’s engine had stopped working and filmed calmly, as he abandoned the aircraft.

It remains to be seen what penalty Jacob might take if it turns out that he faked his accident. In 2009, however, a man was sentenced to four years in prison after confessing to shooting down his own plane to pretend he was dead. At the time, Marcus Schrenker was accused of destroying an aircraft and triggering the coast guard when no help was really needed.