I’ve become unexpectedly obsessed with this story, and wanted to get the views of my fellow Dopers, particularly those with flying and/or legal experience. It was touched on only briefly in the Great Ongoing General Aviation thread.
I’m admittedly a little late coming to it: the incident happened in November, Jacob posted a video about it in late December, and the Internet’s aviation community saw it and blew up shortly thereafter. I only found out about it last week when I watched a video from late January by my favorite aviation YouTuber, Mentour Pilot.
Here’s Wikipedia’s summary of the case:
On November 24, 2021, Jacob took off from Lompoc Airport in a 1940 Taylorcraft BL-65, registration N29508 , a light, single-engine aircraft, claiming that he was flying to Mammoth Mountain to spread ashes of his friend Johnny Strange.[4][9][10] The aircraft was recently purchased by Jacob and described by sources at Lompoc Airport as “in need of major maintenance”. The aircraft appears to have suffered an engine failure during the flight and Jacob parachuted to the ground.[4] The unoccupied aircraft subsequently crashed into unpopulated scrubland in Los Padres National Forest near New Cuyama, California, and was substantially damaged, but did not catch fire; Jacob suffered minor injuries from the parachute landing and hiked out.[4][9][10] One month later, Jacob released an extensively edited video depicting these events on his YouTube channel.[1][4]
The video drew skepticism from members of the aviation community who believe that the crash was a deliberate publicity stunt, citing Jacob’s unusual actions and the manner in which the video was edited.[1][4][5] The edited footage never shows the aircraft controls and engine instruments after the engine stops running, although a camera had been visible inside the cabin. As Jacob jumps out, the tube fuel gauge shows that the forward fuel tank was at least partially full, and Jacob has an object shaped like a fire extinguisher strapped to his leg inside his pants, an unusual item for a pilot to carry in this manner.[5] Jacob is not seen carrying out basic aviation emergency procedures such as trying to restart the engine, contacting air traffic control, or initiating a forced landing despite potential landing sites being visible. An aviation expert estimated that Jacob could have glided the unpowered aircraft for about 15 mi (24 km) and landed with reasonable safety despite the mountainous terrain. Moreover, the propeller stops turning, which another expert attributed to Jacob deliberately pulling back on the controls for a “dramatic effect”.[1] Jacob was flying with a skydiving parachute, which is unusual for pilots of most civil aircraft and difficult in the small Taylorcraft.[1][4] In other videos posted to his YouTube channel, Jacob is seen flying without a parachute,[4] although in one video, he discusses wearing a parachute for precautionary reasons while flying in a helicopter.[1]
As of December 25, 2021, the crash is under investigation by the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA).[10] Jacob may face sanctions from the FAA if his actions are found to have violated aviation regulations,[1][5] which prohibit flying in a “careless or reckless” manner, or flying an aircraft that is not airworthy without a ferry permit.[5] In a statement on January 22, 2022, Jacob denied having purposefully crashed the aircraft for views on YouTube, stating, “People can believe whatever they choose”.[1]
Here’s Jacob’s video, which he has edited since its initial release and the subsequent furor. I have intentionally not viewed it, since 1) others have excerpted the relevant portions and 2) I don’t want to give him extra views if he really did this as a stunt. You can decide for yourself if you want to click on the link.
Here are a few of the other articles and videos I’ve seen about the case:
Aviation YouTuber Trent Palmer:
An aviation lawyer opines:
Mentour Pilot, who came to the story a little later than some others, and summarized some of the later findings. (This is how I first heard about he case.)
There are plenty more similar videos.
Here are just some of the suspicious aspects of the alleged accident not already mentioned above:
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When Jacob bought the plane, it was reportedly not airworthy, and was basically being sold for parts. No record of the plane having passed an current airworthiness inspection has been reported.
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Between the time of the sale and the flight, the standard Lycoming engine was replaced with a Continental, whose cylinder heads were painted red to make it look like a Lycoming. No record of this major change to the aircraft being officially logged by a licensed technician has been reported.
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Instead of parachuting to a relatively safe landing spot, he freefalls longer than seems necessary and follows the plane to its crash site, where he has a rough landing that causes him minor injuries. He removes the cameras from the plane before hiking out, carrying his sport chute with him despite being in a potentially life-threatening situation.
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He had no supplies or water in the plane to recover, and although the nominal purpose of the trip was to go paragliding at the destination, he wasn’t carrying his paragliding rig with him. His regular plane and rig were already at his nominal destination.
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He claims that incidents like this are why he always flies with a parachute. Numerous pilots have pointed out that the only time GA pilots normally wear chutes is if they are doing aerobatics or test flying an experimental or otherwise potentially problematic plane. And then the chutes are completely different from the sport chute he was wearing, which was bulkier and less comfortable. Also, in virtually all of his other flying videos, he is not wearing a chute of any kind.
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Shortly after the incident, he hired a helicopter to remove the wreckage. This is probably a violation of FAA regulations.
He has claimed on his own site that he didn’t crash the plane on purpose, but he has gone silent and declined to comment to any media organization. I haven’t seen anyone attempting to defend him.
What’s your take?