However, it didn’t take long for the internet to become suspicious of Jacob’s narrative, and YouTube has since become populated with videos critiquing the pilot’s story. Aviation professionals have questioned many of Jacob’s decisions during the flight. For instance, the need to jump from the plane seemed suspect to one expert, who offered that the vehicle could have been piloted for another 15 to 20 miles. In the video, Jacob also makes the claim that he “always” flies with a parachute; this claim was subsequently debunked by a number of viewers who noted that, in fact, he isn’t wearing a parachute in most of his videos and that to do so isn’t particularly common for small-plane pilots, as there’s usually not enough room.
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To make matters more interesting, the Federal Aviation Administration is now investigating the crash, reports aviation site AVweb. “The FAA is investigating this event,” the agency told the outlet on Monday, while declining to comment further. While there’s not much to go off there, a thorough investigation by federal officials should be able to tell whether a plane malfunctioned or was intentionally sabotaged in some way.
Ultimately, Jacob is either an innocent man who quite amazingly survived an wild plane crash and is now being unfairly pilloried by a paranoid YouTube mob, or he’s a social media influencer doing what influencers do: pull sensationalistic stunts to grab attention and watch the views roll in.
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Adding fuel to the fire is the fact that Jacob actually isn’t the first influencer pilot to get accused of faking a plane crash. A couple of years ago, David Lesh, a former pro skier and the owner of a Colorado sportswear company, was piloting a plane near Half Moon Bay in northern California when the engine allegedly stalled, forcing him to conduct an emergency water landing. The fact that the whole thing was filmed and later uploaded to YouTube led many to believe that Lesh had staged the crash to garner attention for his business.