One more about Charles Still Travis Barker
Former Blink-182 drummer Travis Barker and DJ AM , the turntable star once engaged to Nicole Richie, are the only survivors of a late-night Learjet crash in South Carolina that killed the other four on board.
Former Blink-182 drummer Travis Barker and Adam Goldstein, known as celebrity DJ AM, were critically injured in a fiery Learjet crash in South Carolina that killed four Southern Californians, including two members of Barker’s entourage, authorities said.
Musical collaborators Travis Barker and DJ AM were in critical condition in a burn unit, after the Learjet they were aboard crashed during takeoff late Friday in Columbia, South Carolina, Access Hollywood has confirmed.
DJ AM, left, and Travis Barker backstage at the MTV Video Music Awards on September 7.
Barker and DJ AM are being treated at the Joseph M. Still Burn Center in Augusta, Georgia, Access has confirmed.
The crash killed four other people on board, authorities said.
The crash happened at 11:53 PM local time, when the plane overran the runway on takeoff, went through a fence, over a road and into an embankment, according to information from the National Transportation Safety Board.
James Bland went on to work for police departments in Laguna Beach and Santa Ana, and then spent 20 years working as a helicopter pilot for U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement in Coronado, Calif.
“We turned to the jet to try and see if there was anything we could do, but immediately, there was nothing anyone could do,” William Owens told CNN affiliate WIS in Columbia, South Carolina.
The Learjet 60 carrying six people, including Barker and Goldstein, was taking off from the Columbia Metropolitan Airport in South Carolina on Friday night when it went off the runway.
Barker and Goldstein were in critical but stable condition this afternoon at Joseph M. Still Burn Center in Augusta, Ga., about 75 miles southwest of the crash site in Columbia, S.C., said hospital spokeswoman Beth Frits.
The plane crashed through light towers and an antenna array before crossing a road and stopping at an embankment, authorities said.
On impact, the plane caught fire.
Relatives of co-pilot James Bland, 52, gathered today at the home of his younger sister, Laura Bland, in Redondo Beach.
Federal investigators recovered the cockpit voice recorder from the crash site but said they aren’t sure whether information on the device survived the blaze.
Once he realized it was an airplane, he pulled over and approached the scene to help, nothing that jet fuel was strewn across the five-lane road.
Lemmon and Bland were reportedly the pilots of the jet, while Baker was reportedly Barker’s assistant, according to MTV.com.
It overran the runway and went through a grassy, overrun area.
“Air traffic controllers did observe sparks from the aircraft as it was going down the runway and immediately alerted fire-rescue crews at the airport,” Hersman said Saturday evening in West Columbia.
Barker and AM blend drum beats and dance beats under the name TRVSDJ-AM, and had just finished playing a free T-Mobile concert in Columbia with Gavin DeGraw and former Jane’s Addiction frontman Perry Farrell.
The plane is owned by Global Exec Aviation, a Long Beach-based charter company, and was certified to operate last year, an NTSB official said.
Investigators are also obtaining recordings of conversations between controllers in the tower and the jet’s two-person crew, said National Transportation Safety Board spokeswoman Debbie Hersman.
Barker and Goldstein had been performing at a concert in Columbia, with fellow musicians Perry Farrell and Gavin DeGraw.
In what officials described as a “high-speed overrun” the jet veered off the end of the runway, through a grassy area, a perimeter fence and across a road, slammed into a berm and became engulfed in a “significant fire,” said National Transportation Safety Board spokesman Peter Knudson.
They are pilot Sarah Lemmon, 31, of Anaheim, Calif.; her copilot, James Bland, 52, of Carlsbad, Calif.; Barker’s assistant, Chris “Little Chris” Baker, 29, of Studio City, Calif.; and Barker’s security guard Charles Still, 25, of Los Angeles, Calif.
Four other people on board the plane, including the pilot, co-pilot and two other passengers, died in the accident.
The two men were in critical condition with extensive burns Saturday.
Federal Aviation Administration spokeswoman Kathleen Bergen said the twin-engine private jet was cleared for takeoff on a flight to Van Nuys, California, and began its takeoff roll a few minutes before midnight.
A 10-member investigative team from the NTSB, which expects to be onsite for up to a week, secured and removed the cockpit voice recorder and sent it to a lab in Washington, D.C., for evaluation.
Because of the ferocity of the fire following the crash, investigators could not say whether the data were damaged, but will announce what the quality of the recording was as soon as it is known.






