The New York Times is reporting that the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) has determined that pro snowboarder Trevor Jacob intentionally crashed his plane for a YouTube video that went viral late last year.
The FAA has revoked Jacob’s private pilot certificate and released the following statement to the New York Times that was written to Jacob:
“You demonstrated a lack of care, judgment and responsibility by choosing to jump out of an aircraft solely so you could record the footage of the crash,”
“Your egregious and intentional actions on these dates indicate that you presently lack the degree of care, judgment and responsibility required of a certificate holder.”
You can read the full New York Times article here.
^Screenshot from the original video.
Hell yeah FAA! Well done.
That’s kind of a weird thing to write. I never thought I’d be celebrating a government agency with such enthusiasm, but this is 2022, and it’s probably the least crazy thing that’s happened this week.
I know nothing about aviation beyond my experiences of taking basic economy flights for ski trips. So, I won’t pretend to know exactly how the FAA made their determination.
However, I will say that Jacob’s video failed the ‘eyeball test’. What do I mean by eyeball test? I just mean that I watched the video and immediately thought, ‘Hmm… something seems fishy here.’
If I’m able to do that without any knowledge of aviation standards then I’m sure the professionals were able to pick apart that footage with ease.
It’s actually kind of crazy that video is still on YouTube. It surely has to violate at least one of YouTube’s policies right? What’s even crazier is that the video is still generating ad revenue…
Here’s the original video:
Here’s a quick message to Trevor Jacob- How about you just stick to being a professional snowboarder? It seems like this influencer lifestyle has gotten a little bit out of hand, don’t ya think?
