A YouTuber has been jailed for six months for deliberately crashing his plane for views, and then lying about it to US investigators.
Trevor Jacob, 30, posted the video of the plane crash in December 2021, implying it was an accident. He ejected from the plane – selfie stick in hand – and parachuted down to land.
The clip was viewed millions of times.
In a plea agreement, Jacob said he filmed the video as part of a product sponsorship deal.
The former Olympic snowboarder pleaded guilty earlier this year to one felony count of destruction and concealment with the intent to obstruct a federal investigation.
Jacob “most likely committed this offence to generate social media and news coverage for himself and to obtain financial gain”, federal prosecutors in California said on Monday.
“Nevertheless, this type of ‘daredevil’ conduct cannot be tolerated,” they added.
In a statement, Jacob said that “this experience has been so humbling” and described the sentence as the “right decision”.
Credit: bbc.com
