zlacker

The fact he didn't harm anyone (or anything other than his plane) is partly luck. Yes it's an uninhabited area, but there are hikers, campers, wildlife, etc. It's a public area. It was incredibly reckless.

As for your comment about sentencing in California, that possibly says less about what the punishment for recklessly endangering lives and property should be than it does about criminal sentencing in California, in my opinion. One might also suggest that putting completely innocent lives at risk over YouTube clicks is something that would be absolutely harmful if enough people engaged in that sort of behaviour, and to that extent I think that a sentence that corresponds to what one would receive for certain kinds of sexual assault is not inappropriate.