This is, sadly, not all that hard to believe:
The Federal Aviation Administration has found that Trevor Jacob, a daredevil YouTuber who posted a video of himself last year parachuting out of a plane that he claimed had malfunctioned, purposely abandoned the aircraft and allowed it to crash into the Los Padres National Forest in Southern California.
In a letter to Mr. Jacob on April 11, the F.A.A. said he had violated federal aviation regulations and operated his single-engine plane in a "careless or reckless manner so as to endanger the life or property of another."
The agency said it would immediately revoke Mr. Jacob's private pilot certificate, effectively ending his permission to operate any aircraft.
Pilot Jacob apparently literally didn't get the memo:
Reached by email on Wednesday, Mr. Jacob appeared unaware of the F.A.A.'s ruling and replied, "Where'd you get that information?"
From the F.A.A., dude! Obviously.
Here's the video in question. He bails at around the 2:05 mark.
Anyway, no, it's not hard to imagine a YouTuber yeeting his own plane into the side of a mountain in order to get some of those sweet clicks. Professional YouTubers are obsessed with clicks. They'll increasingly do anything and everything to get them.
He probably could have made more money just selling the airplane outright! Too late now though.
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