Trevor Jacob, a 28-year-old former snowboarding Olympian turned YouTuber filmed a video back in November 2021 flying his 1940 Taylorcraft airplane. In the video, he says he intends to take off from Lompoc City airport in Santa Barbara and fly to Mammoth Lakes to snowboard. However, when flying above Los Padres National Forest, Trevor claims the aircraft’s engine fails and parachutes out of the airplane, screaming expletives when the propeller stops spinning. “I’m just so happy to be alive,” he says after landing in prickly brushes. He then continues to film his six-hour hike through the forest in which he finds the mangled wreckage of his airplane; later, a farmer finds him at dusk and helps.
Almost immediately after he posted the video to YouTube on December 24th, viewers and aviation experts started to express doubts over his portrayal of the crash. They claimed it was staged and that Trevor had done it for views; they noted many facts about the video, such as wearing a parachute, not trying to restart the engine, not contacting air traffic control, and even having a selfie stick on hand to record himself jumping out of the aircraft.
In a letter sent to Trevor Jacob by the FAA on April 11th, the FAA said he had violated federal aviation regulations and operated his single-engine aircraft in a “careless or reckless manner so as to endanger the life or property of another.” The agency said it would immediately revoke Trevor Jacob’s private pilot certificate, suspending his license to operate any aircraft.
Trevor Jacob subsequently posted a video to his YouTube channel in which he addresses the crash’s controversy saying, “I can’t talk about it, per my attorney. But the truth of that situation will come out with time, and I’ll leave that at that.”
In this instance, the FAA did not have the ability to prosecute Trevor; the agency can only revoke, suspend certificates, and issue fines.
