[HN Gopher] YouTuber who intentionally crashed plane is sentence...
       ___________________________________________________________________
        
       YouTuber who intentionally crashed plane is sentenced to 6 months
       in prison
        
       Author : grecy
       Score  : 23 points
       Date   : 2023-12-04 21:56 UTC (1 hours ago)
        
 (HTM) web link (twitter.com)
 (TXT) w3m dump (twitter.com)
        
       | duskwuff wrote:
       | Might as well link to the DOJ press release; the Twitter post
       | doesn't add any useful information:
       | 
       | https://www.justice.gov/usao-cdca/pr/santa-barbara-county-ma...
        
         | JumpCrisscross wrote:
         | Critically, he is _not_ going to jail for intentionally
         | crashing the plane. He is being jailed  "for obstructing a
         | federal investigation by deliberately destroying the wreckage
         | of an airplane."
         | 
         | Had he cooperated, it's plausible to see him getting away with
         | a license revocation and fine. Instead he did this:
         | 
         | "In the weeks following the plane crash, Jacob lied to
         | investigators that he did not know the wreckage's location. In
         | fact, on December 10, 2021, Jacob and a friend flew by
         | helicopter to the wreckage site. There, Jacob used straps to
         | secure the wreckage, which the helicopter lifted and carried to
         | Rancho Sisquoc in Santa Barbara County, where it was loaded
         | onto a trailer attached to Jacob's pickup truck.
         | 
         | Jacob drove the wreckage to Lompoc City Airport and unloaded it
         | in a hangar. He then cut up and destroyed the airplane wreckage
         | and, over the course of a few days, deposited the detached
         | parts of the wrecked airplane into trash bins at the airport
         | and elsewhere, which was done with the intent to obstruct
         | federal authorities from investigating the November 24 plane
         | crash."
        
           | duskwuff wrote:
           | Note, however, that this doesn't mean that he would have
           | gotten away with it if he'd cooperated. It means that the
           | federal prosecutor decided that the act of obstruction would
           | be easier to prove, since the intentional nature of those
           | acts is much more self-evident.
        
           | foobarian wrote:
           | Wow, that's a lot of expensive trouble to go through to cover
           | up. I wonder what the penalties would be otherwise - I'm sure
           | there is some kind of code it broke but it's not obviously
           | illegal. It's like me crashing my car on purpose.
        
         | DistractionRect wrote:
         | It really doesn't, and in fact proceeds to screenshot said
         | press release.
         | 
         | For those that can't login to view the thread:
         | https://nitter.net/bnonews/status/1731748816250974335
        
       | I_Am_Nous wrote:
       | Sentenced not for crashing the plane, but destroying the evidence
       | and impeding a federal investigation. Hope they pull his pilots
       | license if they haven't already.
        
         | toomuchtodo wrote:
         | Airmen cert doesn't show up in
         | https://amsrvs.registry.faa.gov/airmeninquiry/Main.aspx
         | 
         | https://www.aviationweekly.org/news/pw8d8knj7uroieoxodawivkl...
         | 
         | > 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.
        
       | fxtentacle wrote:
       | For me, the really interesting question is not if he's guilty - I
       | had assumed as much - but if he will come out financially
       | successful. That video had millions of views and a sponsorship
       | deal. Call me a cynic, but it seems that some companies will
       | deliberately break the law and pay the price if it's worth it, so
       | why not independent hustlers.
        
         | WillPostForFood wrote:
         | Legal fees alone are going to be many times YouTube revenue.
         | Add lost wages for a half year in prison. Add future lost
         | revenue from sponsors who don't want to be associated with
         | this, and it has to be a huge financial disaster.
        
         | duskwuff wrote:
         | [delayed]
        
       | resolutebat wrote:
       | Plenty of previous discussion on HN, but IMHO the most
       | interesting one was the early dissection of whether or not the
       | crash was intentional:
       | https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=29729307
        
       ___________________________________________________________________
       (page generated 2023-12-04 23:01 UTC)