Drummer, DJ only survivors of plane crash
Travis Barker and DJ AM were seriously injured in the S. Carolina accident, which left four dead.
WEST COLUMBIA, S.C. - Hours after performing for thousands of South Carolina college students, former Blink-182 drummer Travis Barker and celebrity DJ AM were critically injured in a fiery Learjet crash that killed four people, authorities said yesterday.
Officials said the plane carrying six people was departing shortly before midnight Friday when air traffic controllers reporting seeing sparks. The plane hurtled off the end of a runway and crashed through antennas and a fence. It came to rest on an embankment across a five-lane highway and was engulfed in flames, said Debbie Hersman, a member of the National Transportation Safety Board.
Barker and DJ AM, who was born and raised in Philadelphia as Adam Goldstein, were in critical but stable condition at a burn center in Augusta, Ga., yesterday afternoon, hospital spokeswoman Beth Frits said. Augusta is about 75 miles southwest of Columbia.
Two other passengers - Chris Baker, 29, of Studio City, Calif., and Charles Still, 25, of Los Angeles - died, as did pilot Sarah Lemmon, 31, of Anaheim Hills, Calif., and copilot James Bland, 52, of Carlsbad, Calif., according to the county coroner. Baker was an assistant to Barker, and Still was a security guard for the musician.
The plane was headed for Van Nuys, Calif. It is owned by Global Exec Aviation, a California-based charter company, and was certified to operate last year, Hersman said. The company expressed its condolences in a statement and said it was working with investigators to determine the cause of the crash.
At the crash site yesterday, the air was still heavy with the odor of jet fuel. A trail of black soot led off a runway. The nose of the aircraft was gone and the roof was missing from two-thirds of the charred plane.
Barker and Goldstein had performed together under the name TRVSDJ-AM at a free concert in Columbia on Friday night. Event sponsor T-Mobile said their hour-long set ended about 7:15 p.m.
The show, which included performances by former Jane's Addiction singer Perry Farrell and singer Gavin DeGraw, drew 10,000 people into the streets of Five Points, the neighborhood near the University of South Carolina, Coble said.
Barker, 32, was one of the more colorful members of the multiplatinum-selling punk rock band Blink-182, whose biggest album, 1999's
Enema of the State
, sold more than five million copies in the United States alone.
After Blink-182 disbanded in 2005, Barker went on to form the rock band (+44) - pronounced "plus forty-four." He also starred in the MTV reality series
Meet the Barkers
with his then-wife, former Miss USA Shanna Moakler. The show documented the former couple's lavish wedding and private life. Their later split, reconciliation and subsequent breakup made them tabloid favorites.
Goldstein, 35, is a popular DJ for hire who at one time was engaged to Nicole Richie.
He has spun a mix of hip-hop and dance beats for the hottest nightclubs and had a string of dates set up for the next few weeks, including an appearance Thursday at Pearl in Philadelphia.
DJ AM also dated singer/actress Mandy Moore, and while he became a gossip favorite for his romances, he drew respect from music aficionados for his DJ skills.