YouTuber ass who crashed a plane for clicks is going to prison

[thewayne]

He rigged the plane with cameras, wore a parachute and had a selfie stick with a video camera attached. 35 minutes into a flight, he shut off the engine and bailed. The plane went down as he parachuted down. He then hiked to the crash and retrieved the footage from the cameras, which were probably GoPros or something similar.

He then contacted the FAA reporting the crash as an engine failure and they launched an investigation, as they are responsible for investigating all crashes. And this is why he's going to prison for six months. He and a buddy went back to the crash site, retrieved the plane, took it back to an airport hanger and cut it up and disposed of it.

All for clicks to promote a sponsor's crypto wallet or some sort of garbage.

Six years would have taught him a much more valuable lesson.

Basically he was convicted of lying to federal investigators and impeding a federal investigation.

https://www.yahoo.com/news/california-pilot-crashed-plane-youtube-201728505.html

Comments

[kaishin108]

Yes, what an A$S, jeez.

[warriorsavant]

Jail sounds like a good place for him. And yes, longer than 6 months. BTW, who owned the airplane, and were they a tad annoyed with him for crashing it? When I was briefly part of an aviation unit, although never investigated any crashes (fortunately didn't have any), I was impressed by just how thorough the investigations would have had to be.

[thewayne]

Apparently he owned the plane or bought it for this particular stunt.  No insurance was mentioned in previous articles that I've read about this incident, otherwise he'd be under investigation for insurance fraud.

[armiphlage]

The potential hazard to other aircraft or people on the ground, too!

[disneydream06]

WTF!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
6 months is no where near enough time. :o
Hugs, Jon

[rain_gryphon]

Well, considering that it was his own plane, and no-one else suffered loss or damage, I can agree that six months plus losing his license for deliberately crashing his plane and destroying evidence is reasonable. The FAA rules are in place for a reason. I do think that if he'd admitted up front what he did, he'd have gotten royally bitched at, but that would have been the end of it.

[silveradept]

That there is punishment for this kind of disregard is better than nothing, but it does seem a bit light compared to what could have been a problem if the plane crash had hurt or killed others, or started a fire, or other such highly destructive acts.

[thewayne]

Oh, I'm sure severity of punishment would have gone up with severity or lethality of damage!