<story><title>YouTuber sentenced to 6 months in prison for obstructing probe into plane crash</title><url>https://www.justice.gov/usao-cdca/pr/santa-barbara-county-man-sentenced-6-months-prison-obstructing-federal-probe-plane</url></story><parent_chain><item><author>avar</author><text>&amp;gt; [...]this doesn&amp;#x27;t mean that he would have gotten away with it if he&amp;#x27;d cooperated[...]&lt;p&gt;If he&amp;#x27;d stuck to the story that he just had an engine mishap would they have been able to prove that it was intentional?&lt;p&gt;They&amp;#x27;d almost certainly have revoked his license to ever fly again, but filming everything you&amp;#x27;re doing isn&amp;#x27;t illegal.&lt;p&gt;Nor is wearing a parachute because you know you&amp;#x27;re a crappy pilot that&amp;#x27;ll bail out at the first sign of trouble.</text></item><item><author>duskwuff</author><text>Note, however, that this doesn&amp;#x27;t mean that he would have gotten away with it if he&amp;#x27;d cooperated. It means that the federal prosecutor decided that the act of obstruction would be easier to prove, since the intentional nature of those acts is much more self-evident.</text></item><item><author>JumpCrisscross</author><text>Critically, he is &lt;i&gt;not&lt;/i&gt; going to jail for intentionally crashing the plane. He is being jailed &amp;quot;for obstructing a federal investigation by deliberately destroying the wreckage of an airplane.&amp;quot;&lt;p&gt;Had he cooperated, it&amp;#x27;s plausible to see him getting away with a license revocation and fine. Instead he did this:&lt;p&gt;&amp;quot;In the weeks following the plane crash, Jacob lied to investigators that he did not know the wreckage’s location. In fact, on December 10, 2021, Jacob and a friend flew by helicopter to the wreckage site. There, Jacob used straps to secure the wreckage, which the helicopter lifted and carried to Rancho Sisquoc in Santa Barbara County, where it was loaded onto a trailer attached to Jacob’s pickup truck.&lt;p&gt;Jacob drove the wreckage to Lompoc City Airport and unloaded it in a hangar. He then cut up and destroyed the airplane wreckage and, over the course of a few days, deposited the detached parts of the wrecked airplane into trash bins at the airport and elsewhere, which was done with the intent to obstruct federal authorities from investigating the November 24 plane crash.&amp;quot;</text></item></parent_chain><comment><author>ksherlock</author><text>General Aviation airplanes require an annual inspection (from an IA A&amp;amp;P mechanic -- that&amp;#x27;s airframe &amp;amp; powerplant with inspection authorization).  My understanding is that the plane was out of annual (ie, bought as parts) and he fixed it up enough to fly.  There are strict limits on what repairs you can do yourself without involving a licensed A&amp;amp;P mechanic.  FAA actually does ramp checks on occasion to verify that your bug smasher has up to date registration and annual inspection.  Regardless of how the flight ended, the flight shouldn&amp;#x27;t have happened in the first place and his PPL could be revoked for that alone.</text></comment>
<story><title>YouTuber sentenced to 6 months in prison for obstructing probe into plane crash</title><url>https://www.justice.gov/usao-cdca/pr/santa-barbara-county-man-sentenced-6-months-prison-obstructing-federal-probe-plane</url></story><parent_chain><item><author>avar</author><text>&amp;gt; [...]this doesn&amp;#x27;t mean that he would have gotten away with it if he&amp;#x27;d cooperated[...]&lt;p&gt;If he&amp;#x27;d stuck to the story that he just had an engine mishap would they have been able to prove that it was intentional?&lt;p&gt;They&amp;#x27;d almost certainly have revoked his license to ever fly again, but filming everything you&amp;#x27;re doing isn&amp;#x27;t illegal.&lt;p&gt;Nor is wearing a parachute because you know you&amp;#x27;re a crappy pilot that&amp;#x27;ll bail out at the first sign of trouble.</text></item><item><author>duskwuff</author><text>Note, however, that this doesn&amp;#x27;t mean that he would have gotten away with it if he&amp;#x27;d cooperated. It means that the federal prosecutor decided that the act of obstruction would be easier to prove, since the intentional nature of those acts is much more self-evident.</text></item><item><author>JumpCrisscross</author><text>Critically, he is &lt;i&gt;not&lt;/i&gt; going to jail for intentionally crashing the plane. He is being jailed &amp;quot;for obstructing a federal investigation by deliberately destroying the wreckage of an airplane.&amp;quot;&lt;p&gt;Had he cooperated, it&amp;#x27;s plausible to see him getting away with a license revocation and fine. Instead he did this:&lt;p&gt;&amp;quot;In the weeks following the plane crash, Jacob lied to investigators that he did not know the wreckage’s location. In fact, on December 10, 2021, Jacob and a friend flew by helicopter to the wreckage site. There, Jacob used straps to secure the wreckage, which the helicopter lifted and carried to Rancho Sisquoc in Santa Barbara County, where it was loaded onto a trailer attached to Jacob’s pickup truck.&lt;p&gt;Jacob drove the wreckage to Lompoc City Airport and unloaded it in a hangar. He then cut up and destroyed the airplane wreckage and, over the course of a few days, deposited the detached parts of the wrecked airplane into trash bins at the airport and elsewhere, which was done with the intent to obstruct federal authorities from investigating the November 24 plane crash.&amp;quot;</text></item></parent_chain><comment><author>JumpCrisscross</author><text>&amp;gt; &lt;i&gt;If he&amp;#x27;d stuck to the story that he just had an engine mishap would they have been able to prove that it was intentional?&lt;/i&gt;&lt;p&gt;In a normal setting, probably not. General-aviation aircraft don&amp;#x27;t have flight recorders. Helpfully for the investigators, however, this numpty decked his plane out in cameras. And then posted the video online. &lt;i&gt;After&lt;/i&gt; he&amp;#x27;d executed the cover-up.</text></comment>