The state or whomever should charge him for littering.
Though I imagine they'll probably get him for insurance fraud.
Though I imagine they'll probably get him for insurance fraud.
TFA says he recovered the wreckage and disposed of it
The pilot could not have known with 100% certainty that the plane wouldn't land on a hiker or wildlife.
And it's an airplane, the ultimate sword of Damocles hanging over people's heads by a horse hair, yeah this was like a fucking kamikaze.
And like the other commenters say, there are means to do aircraft destructions properly, with permission and so forth, meaning in that case with 0% chance of killing living things and therefore no felony.
They're not specifically illegal.
And they're likely to remain that way unless someone manages to do one of them and dodge all other criminal prosecution.
Its just expensive as hell, and the knock on fines will only add onto it.
You’re not getting off on some technicality where there is no specific law against a specific action. There are broad statutes to specifically nail people who think like that.
Edit: There is a lovely idiom for this—“play stupid games, win stupid prizes”.
Yikes, a federal property no less.
This guy has some bumping around money if he was willing to sacrifice a plane for a YouTube stunt.
https://registry.faa.gov/AircraftInquiry/Search/NNumberResul...
Side note: Trees are much more expensive to replace than you might assume.