Trevor Jacob, former Olympic snowboarder-turned-daredevil YouTube personality has had his license revoked by the FAA, saying he intentionally abandoned his Taylorcraft BL-65, parachuting to the ground as the aircraft crashed.
A now-viral video posted to Jacob’s YouTube in December titled “I crashed my plane,” shows the entire event, including the moments leading up to Jacob parachuting out of his aircraft, claiming to experience engine failure. Whether this event was accidentally or meticulously planned out has been a hot topic of discussion within the aviation community.
The FAA, however, does not believe this was accidental.
The agency told Jacob to surrender his private license immediately. If he does not comply, he could face a civil penalty of $1,644 for each day he does not return his license.
According to a report in The New York Times, the FAA sent a letter to Jacob on April 11, saying he violated FAR 91.13.
“Your flight… [was] careless or reckless so as to endanger life or property of another,” said the letter. According to the FAA Registry, Jacob obtained his private pilot license in mid-June of 2020 and has since posted videos of his aviation adventures.
“Where’d you get that information?” Jacob replied to a request for comment by The New York Times, appearing unaware of the FAA’s ruling.
The agency said in its letter that Jacob opened the left side pilot door before claiming engine failure, made no attempt to contact ATC on the emergency frequency, did not try to restart the engine, and failed to look for a safe place to land, despite multiple clear areas within gliding range.
The FAA also claims Jacob recovered the cameras and then disposed of the wreckage.
The “I crashed my plane” video has been viewed over 1,736,000 times since it was posted. At the beginning of the video, he claims he posted it to teach other pilots and let them learn from his experience. Since then, Jacob has gone through and edited out approximately 4 minutes of the video, cutting out the introduction, text screens, Ridge Wallet advertisement, and the ending portion of the video. Comments were also turned off, many of them leaving scathing reviews of the pilot’s actions.
Early into the flight, Jacob claims to be experiencing an engine failure. The pilot quickly looks around before evacuating the plane and parachuting to the ground. After landing, he walks through the remote environment for 8 hours before running into local farmers that brought him back to civilization. This entire event was documented by multiple GoPro cameras mounted on the body of the aircraft as well as a handheld camera.
RELATED: What we see in the Trevor Jacob plane crash YouTube video with the FAA investigating
No new videos had been uploaded to the channel until last week, when Jacob shared a 45-minute-long video of his new Podcast, “Adventured.” The incident in November was not addressed.
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