YouTube Jumper Sentenced For Airplane Stunt In Los Padres National Forest

Monday December 04, 2023

(YouTube photos courtesy US Attorney's Office)

    Updated--Santa Barbara County resident Trevor Jacob was sentenced Monday to six months in federal prison for a stunt aimed at getting YouTube views by parachuting from his airplane and letting it crash in the Los Padres National Forest.

     The 30-year-old Jacob of Lompoc earlier pleaded guilty to one count of destruction and concealment with intent to obstruct a federal investigation, a crime that could have landed him in prison for up to 20 years.

     Prosecutors say Jacob left Lompoc Airport on November 24, 2021 with the intention of parachuting out of his single engine plane and letting it crash while making videos of the stunt using several cameras mounted on the plane and also a hand held camera.

     They say there was nothing wrong with the plane, it was all meant to create a YouTube video that would make him money through a sponsorship.

     Prosecutors say he retrieved and destroyed the wreckage of the plane before NTSB investigators could locate and examine it and that he lied to investigators when he claimed the plane had suffered engine failure and the crash was an accident.