Why is Trevor Jacob serving time in federal prison? Reason explored as YouTuber intentionally crashed plane for views

Trevor Jacob, an adventurer YouTuber, was sentenced to six months in federal prison after his shenanigans came under scrutiny. For those unaware, the content creator went viral after uploading a video titled, I Crashed My Airplane. As the title implies, Jacob intentionally crashed a plane by jumping out of it mid-flight.

Earlier this year, the US Attorney's Office in the Central District of California disclosed that Trevor Jacob pleaded guilty to a felony charge for intentionally destroying an airplane to obtain views.

An excerpt from the official press release said:

"Trevor Daniel Jacob, 29, of Lompoc, agreed to plead guilty to one count of destruction and concealment with the intent to obstruct a federal investigation, a crime that carries a statutory maximum sentence of 20 years in federal prison."

On December 5, 2023, news broke that Trevor Jacob had been sentenced to six months in federal prison. X (formerly Twitter) user @CollinRugg posted:

"Just in: YouTuber Trevor Jacob, the man who jumped out of an airplane that crashed in California, has been sentenced to federal prison. In 2021, Jacob took off to fly to Mammoth and claims his plane malfunctioned mid-flight. Jacob, an experienced pilot and skydiver, then ejected out of the plane and skydived to safety as the plane crashed. Investigators determined that Jacob planned the whole stunt and lied by claiming that the plane had a full loss of power."

Collin Rugg added:

"Jacob was sentenced to six months in federal prison."

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"I never thought I'd be in this position" - Trevor Jacob addresses community after being sentenced to serve six months in federal prison

On December 5, 2023, Trevor Jacob uploaded a video for the first time in a year, revealing that he had regained his pilot license. He also addressed the community after receiving a six-month sentence in federal prison.

In a video titled, I Got My Pilots License Back! But Going To Prison..., Jacob said he did not consider the impact his antics would have on the younger generation:

"I never thought I'd be in this position. But looking back, like, in hindsight, it's 2020 and I'm like... 'Yeah, it makes sense.' The biggest thing that I never really considered was the influence that can have on the younger generations."

Timestamp: 02:25

The YouTuber continued further, saying:

"There's so many kids that are like, you know, influenced by what they see on the internet that, you know, that has the effect to inspire someone to do something, maybe harmful or evil. And, I knew I wasn't going to hurt anyone. But I never really considered like, 'Oh, some kid out there might take this and run with it in a really bad direction.' So, I understand that aspect of it and for that, I never would have done it, had I realized, like, that effect."

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Trevor Jacob joined the Google-owned video-sharing platform in November 2008. At the time of writing, his channel had over 143,000 subscribers and 7.5 million views.