Trevor Jacob filmed himself jumping from a small plane when he appeared to experience engine trouble, sticking his parachute trip to the ground. The title of the video – “I crashed my plane” – should be taken at face value, says the Federal Aviation Administration, which concludes that the pilot engineered the script.
In a letter to Mr. Jacob on April 11, the FAA said he violated federal aviation regulations and operated his single-engine aircraft in a “careless or reckless manner in a manner that could endanger life or the property of others”.
The agency said it would immediately revoke Mr Jacob’s private pilot certificate, ending his authorization to operate any aircraft.
Reached by email on Wednesday, Mr. Jacob appeared to ignore the FAA’s ruling and replied, “Where did you get that information?”
The 13-minute video of Taylor flying over the Los Padres National Forest in a 1940 Taylorcraft B has over 1.7 million views to date. At the time, many observers remarked that it was strange that he had installed so many cameras for this one flight. The FAA can’t prosecute him, but his report that he intentionally crashed his plane is likely to attract interest from someone who could.
