The video, released on July 4, shows scenes akin to an action film as Choi laughs while driving the Lamborghini and helicopter-launched fireworks ricochet off the car, enveloping it in sparks.
The footage triggered investigations by the Federal Aviation Administration and the Department of Transportation’s Office of Inspector General. Choi is also accused of failing to secure permits and waivers required to film with a helicopter and to use fireworks on the federally owned land where the video was shot.
Choi did not immediately respond to requests for comment Thursday. An attorney was not listed for him in court records, and it was unclear whether he remained in custody.
Choi, whose YouTube channel has around 900,000 subscribers and showcases luxury supercars, said in the video that he conceived of the stunt to make “the craziest Fourth of July video involving cars and fireworks.”
The video, which was recently removed from Choi’s channel but is viewable on an online archive, shows a blue Lamborghini speeding across a lake bed, followed closely by a helicopter. Two women inside the aircraft use handheld tubes to launch fireworks at the car.
In another shot, the Lamborghini does doughnuts and launches fireworks upward from a box mounted on the car while the helicopter hovers nearby. Toward the end of the video, fireworks strike people on the ground. Choi speaks to the crew and asks if anyone was hit by fireworks, and some people show small, singed holes on their hoodies and pants.
Choi and his team performed the stunt in early June 2023, then returned to the lake bed later that month to repeat it and shoot additional footage, according to the video and the complaint. He published the video with the description “Happy birthday America!” It received around 500,000 views before it was removed from his channel, according to an archive of the video’s YouTube page.
The FAA began investigating the video days after Choi published it, according to the complaint. The agency suspended the license of the pilot involved in the shoot for hazardous flying and operating a helicopter less than 500 feet from people and a moving car. That pilot was a friend of Choi’s who was paid to fly during the shoot, according to text messages reviewed by investigators.
Investigators with the Department of Transportation found that Choi’s team did not obtain a waiver from the FAA Flight Standards District Office in the region to film with a helicopter, according to the complaint. The complaint also says a pilot should have submitted an activity plan to the FAA for approval before a shoot.
The Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives did not issue explosives licenses to any of Choi’s team members credited in the video, according to the complaint. The shoot also took place on a federally owned portion of the El Mirage Dry Lakebed and would have required a filming permit and the presence of a pyrotechnician and fire crews, the complaint states.
Choi faces up to 10 years in prison if convicted, according to the Justice Department.
The charges come after Trevor Jacob, another YouTube personality, was sentenced to six months in December for an aviation stunt in California. Jacob staged an on-camera escape from a small two-seat plane, bailing out of the aircraft and purposefully letting it crash in the Los Padres National Forest, and misled National Transportation Safety Board officials investigating the crash, The Washington Post reported.