Remember Trevor Jacob? The YouTuber who parachuted out of his Taylor Craft airplane after claiming he had an engine problem? Well, he recently plead guilty to obstruction of a federal investigation and will have to serve up to two years in prison for his ill-thought-out stunt!

Needless to say, he has already lost his pilot license. There may well be other charges as different agencies weigh their options...

His friend with the helicopter who carried the wreckage back to his airport may well wind up being charged in the coverup as well.

 

Good!  He needs plenty of time to think about what he did and the potential danger to other lives and/or property.

First I've heard of this. Good grief, this guy is a low-life on so many levels! The very fact someone would deliberately crash a vehicle without any control over where it ends up or who or what it could kill or seriously injure is beyond stupid. Frankly, he's getting off lightly IMO. He certainly shouldn't be allowed his pilot licence ever again and I would honestly not allow him to drive any vehicle requiring a licence (though that may not be something that could be forced upon him legally).

Another tell-tale sign of how staged this was is surely the fact he had the 'presence of mind' to use a selfie stick camera to record his parachute 'escape'. If it were me, I'd be thinking solely about exiting the plane swiftly and safely making my way to the ground, not worrying about how YouTube-worthy I could make my misfortune look.

What an absolute *insert derogatory term here*.🤬

On 8/29/2023 at 1:39 AM, 109Sqn said:

Another tell-tale sign of how staged this was is surely the fact he had the 'presence of mind' to use a selfie stick camera to record his parachute 'escape'. If it were me, I'd be thinking solely about exiting the plane swiftly and safely making my way to the ground, not worrying about how YouTube-worthy I could make my misfortune look.

Apart from that, what pilot would wear a complete parachute kit unless he/she is expecting to have a problem during flight, in which case a sensible pilot would not take off anyway.
Also, when the engine quit he did none of the troubleshooting he ought to have done. Except for fighter pilots, exiting the aircraft during flight is not the first thing on your mind, even when wearing a parachute.

After the crash he first went to the crash site to retrieve the camera's and then conveniently forgot where that was so the FIA could not investigate the issue before he had removed the evidence.

IMHO, someone who so demonstrates to be completely irresponsible as a pilot should never be able to pilot an aircraft again, and perhaps not even be allowed to drive a car with that mindset.

Glad he’s headed to the clink.

And now it's official: 6 months in jail:

https://www.cnn.com/2023/12/04/us/youtuber-federal-prison-fake-plane-crash/index.html

6 months is not enough considering the fraud, covering up the investigation, and risk to life, he got off easy

I agree that's not enough.

Are they at least going to ban him for life from getting a pilot's license?  He's disgraced all licensed pilots everywhere, and caused a stain on aviation safety and responsibility of the pilot and public trust in aviation.

1 hour ago, Mace said:

Are they at least going to ban him for life from getting a pilot's license?

Apparently not. He says he has his pilot's licence back. In the first video, Mentour says he is banned for the term of his imprisonment. See 7:02 of this video:

https://youtu.be/55JdKOFIecc?si=m5MKn9mM7RFFUkjc

Edited December 6, 20232 yr by dmwalker

I'd say something, but I don't want to get my knuckles whacked with a ruler.  I will just post this emoticon as my reaction to his punishment. 🤬

14 hours ago, dmwalker said:

Mentour says he is banned for the term of his imprisonment.

In other words, he isn't banned at all.😠

He hides his contrition very well.