Santa Barbara County Dispatch Receives Emergency Call from Trevor Jacob

With prison only weeks away, Trevor Jacob had another misadventure in the skies over Santa Barbara County this weekend. Jacob will be spending six months in Lompoc federal prison, as recommended by the courts, after pleading guilty to lying to federal aviation authorities after he ditched a small plane over Los Padres National Forest in November 2021 for the purpose of making a YouTube video.

Jacob’s pilot’s license was revoked by the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) five months later, and then was restored on a temporary basis while his new pilot application “is working its way through our standard process,” a spokesperson for the FAA said earlier this month. “Under the regulations, a pilot can reapply for a new certificate after a year unless a drug offense was involved,” she said.

After Jacob parachuted out of his aircraft two years ago, he carried the Taylorcraft off the mountain with a rented helicopter, cut the plane into pieces at Lompoc Airport, threw them into different dumpsters, and then told FAA investigators that he didn’t have the coordinates of the crash site. This May, he pleaded guilty to obstruction.

Three fire engines, two medical units, and Lompoc police were called to Lompoc Airport this Sunday around 1 p.m. after the tower at Santa Barbara Airport relayed an emergency call from Jacob. He was flying a single-engine Rans aircraft, which is registered to him.

“He thought there was a fuel issue,” explained Cody Lee, a battalion chief with Lompoc Fire who was among the dozen individuals who responded. He and his crew reached the airport shortly after Jacob landed safely. “There was no actual emergency action taken aside from staging,” Lee said of the lights-and-sirens response.

Jacob could not be reached for comment.

Richard Fernbaugh, who runs Lompoc airport for the city, said he would report the incident to the FAA, which happens “any time emergency responders are summoned to the Lompoc Airport for a potential emergency incident.” He disavowed Jacob, claiming he didn’t have a hangar at the airport now or ever.

An FAA spokesperson said the incident was under investigation.