Olympic Snowboarder Trevor Jacob’s Plane Crash: Public Stunt or Good Cause?

Evan Boughey | | Post Tag for Industry NewsIndustry News

Former Olympic Snowboarder Trevor Jacob was making a vlog of his trip to the Sierra Nevada Mountain range in which he subsequently uploaded a video to YouTube titled “I Crashed My Plane.” Since that video has been released, the comments have been removed and controversy has sparked on the internet. In the vlog, Trevor Jacob stated, “that he’s going to fly to the Sierra Nevada to paraglide, snowboard, and spread his friend Johnny Strange’s ashes over the Sierra Nevada while paragliding from one of his favorite peaks.”

Jacob flew his plane during the vlog, but during the trip, his engine cut out. That left him with a couple of options, try to land the plane safely or jump out and parachute to safety. He decides to go with the second option. The video and the events in the video have caused the public to start asking if this stunt was staged for more views on the video and to his channel.

Jacob while falling
Trevor Jacob looking back after jumping out of plane: Credit- Trevor Jacob- I Crashed My Plane – YouTube

Within the vlog, there are a few things that are making the public question whether it was necessary or not to crash his plane in the fashion he did. In the video, you can see three different GoPros on his plane, one facing him and two facing his door.  During his flight, he claims to have an engine failure, and you can see the propeller stop moving on the plane. At this point, he’s over the mountain range which does not give him a good place to do an emergency landing. He then decides to jump out of the plane, with a GoPro in his hand. As he is falling you can see the plane and him descending. Luckily, he had his parachute on and was able to land safely and find the crashed plane. But then he was left to navigate down a mountainside, and try to find some help. Luckily, after quite some time hiking, he stumbles upon a farm and gets some help.

Another thing to consider is that his most viewed video stirred up the public as well. This video is titled “My Best friend Died BASE Jumping.” His friend, Johnny Strange, passed away at the age of 23 while doing Base Jumping. Within the video he has his friend, who was with Johnny during the accident, recall what had happened. He also included the footage of those two while doing the jump. The public appears to be questioning Jacob’s motive for creating a vlog of his friend’s tragic event, which the video to date has about 2.8 million views

With this and the events in “I Crashed My Plane,” the public seems to be leaning towards believing that it was done to raise views. After watching the video, what do you all think about this video?

Jacob's camera angles
Camera angles that Jacob had on his plane- Credit: Trevor Jacob-I Crashed My Plane – YouTube

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8 thoughts on “Olympic Snowboarder Trevor Jacob’s Plane Crash: Public Stunt or Good Cause?

  1. I hope ole Trevor goes to jail and is fined hundreds of thousands of dollars as well.

    What a narcissistic criminal piece of shit.

  2. No. Crewmembers wear evac parachutes (not skydiving rigs) because the STC for door removal requires them (unless concurrently doing aerobatics). Otherwise, aerobatics require emergency chutes (91.307) as you said. This whole thing is shady.

  3. Yes Alvin, I mentioned that using the term”unusual attitudes”. I only met a few aerobatic pilots at Santa Paula airport and they did not care about requirements, they just cared about safety. Regardless, the guy in the video was neither doing aerobatics or dropping skydivers. He was transporting himself to Mammoth. The training when your engine quits is immediately get to the best glide slope air speed for you plane, turn downslope, and scan for potential landing sites. This guy immediately grabbed a selfie stick and jumped. Don’t know if flight training has changed that much over the years.

  4. Hey SC, Stunt pilots and Skydiver drop pilots wear parachutes because the FAA makes them. Go read up on CFR 91.307 Parachutes and parachuting. It’s all about bank angles and attitude angles, not because they want to.

  5. This guy planned to leave his plane. Hands down.

    Small plane pilots do not normally wear parachutes. He is flying a Taylorcraft which is the predecessor for the Piper cub. There is minimal room to sit in that plane without a bulky backpack. The parachute crotch straps would irritate the pilot’s jewels with every rudder input. Only stunt pilots who fly their planes in unusual attitudes throughout their time aloft wear parachutes because they realize that they may be needed. He says that he always flys with a parachute…I GUARANTEE that he did not always, if ever, fly with a parachute prior to this.

    From the video it appears that the plane is several thousand feet above the coast range. That plane has a 10:1 glide ratio, which means that for every thousand feet drop it moves forward 10,000 feet. He had time and altitude to search for, find, and utilize a flat stretch for an emergency landing. Prior to the plane crashing there is a long, flat wash with a straight portion of road alongside that would have made an excellent landing area. That plane lands at only 35 mph so landing there was not only possible, it should have been easy with the only problem being inconvenience.

    Small planes are extremely reliable if maintained. They have an annual inspection by an in certified mechanic who must bless the plane to maintain its airworthiness. If the plane is not airworthy, only a ferry pilot can fly it with special approval. If this plane was compliant with all of the requirements, the chance of the engine quitting in a short flight is about the double the chance of getting struck by lightening. It is not legal to fly a plane that is not airworthy–As it goes, there is not consequence if nothing happens but if there is a crash the FAA will review maintenance records and pull the pilot’s license. The FAA will be sure t go to the crash site to recover the plane ant do a thorough investigation of this incident.

    This egocentric clown had cameras attached to the plane covering the crash from multiple angles…not a typical flight. The guy wore a parachute…not standard practice. The guy had a selfie stick ready to record his parachute jump…not standard for a flight but standard for a planned jump.

  6. Who knows. What makes it suspect? Seems to be no fuel or fire from crash. Pilots don’t typically get emotional/vocal when the S hits the fan. They go into a millions thoughts a minute to fix their situation. So many cameras….

  7. “After watching the video, what do you all think about this video?”
    I think Trevor isn’t a very smart person. I also think the writer of the post doesn’t know much about aviation nor did he write correct information. Trevor’s most viewed video with 6.7 million views is another stunt or should I say LIE. The train horn arrest video was proven to be a hoax and after many called BS, Trevor admitted that the video was staged. Go figure, Trevor is making staged videos & trying to pass them off as genuine.

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