Travis Barker and DJ AM Were Injured in a Jet Crash

Former drummer of Blink 182, Travis Barker, and DJ AM were injured in a Learjet crash that left four others dead, said the authorities on Sunday. The accident happened after the plane takeoff from Columbia, South Carolina.

Federal Aviation Administration spokesman Les Dorr said that the four people killed included two crew. Dorr added, “Our understanding was that the two injured were Travis Barker and DJ AM”. While another FAA spokeswoman Kathleen Bergen said the Learjet 60 – bound for Van Nuys, California, with six people aboard – departed shortly before midnight Friday, when air-traffic controllers reported seeing sparks.

According to South Carolina’s Lexington County coroner, Harry Harman, and deputy coroner, Brian Setree, the four others on the plane that were killed are: pilot Sarah Lemmon, 31, of Anaheim Hills, Calif.; co-pilot James Bland, 52, of Carlsbad, Calif.; security guard Charles Still, 25, of Los Angeles; and Barker’s assistant Chris Baker, 29, also of Los Angeles. As Setree said, “We are doing our own investigation as well as waiting to hear what the National Transportation Safety Board has to say”.

A spokesperson for the Columbia Metropolitan Airport, Lynne Douglas, said the weather was beautiful when the Leerjet left the runway after midnight Friday. “The plane crashed on takeoff and went through a fence near Highway 302, then crossed the road and went up an embankment before being filled with flames. There was debris all over the runway. We are closed now and hope to reopen later today”.

And then Debbie Hersman of the National Transportation Safety Board detailed the accident, “The tragedy occurred shortly after takeoff, with air traffic controllers reporting that they saw sparks from the aircraft. The jet hurtled off the end of a runway and crashed through antennas and a fence, coming to rest a quarter-mile away on an embankment across a five-lane highway, where it was engulfed in flames”.

Barker, who once starring in MTV reality show “Meet the Barkers,” with ex-wife former Miss USA Shanna Moakler, had performed at a free Friday-night college event with former Jane’s Addiction singer Perry Farrell, Gavin DeGraw and DJ AM. Barker and Goldstein perform together under the name TRVSDJ-AM. Both critically injured, but the medical director of the Georgia burn center where the two are being treated said Sunday morning that men are expected to make full recoveries.

Dr. Fred Mullins of the Joseph M. Still Burn Center at Doctors’ Hospital in Augusta said at a press conference that 32-year-old Barker and 35-year-old DJ AM are being treated for second- and third-degree burns. Mullins says Barker was burned on his torso and lower body, while DJ AM, was burned on his arms and a portion of his head. The doctor described both as remaining in critical but stable condition and in the intensive-care unit of the hospital.

Update on the crash, according to Debbie Hersman, board member of the National Transportation Safety Board in Washington, D.C., “The cockpit voice recorder went on for two hours, but the last 18 minutes were most pertinent, because those words proved that it was a tire blowout that [may have] caused the crash killing four people”.

Hopefully both of them recover quickly, and no trauma left behind. Get well soon guys!

[ via People ]

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