Only hours after performing for thousands of South Carolina College students the Learjet that former Blink-182 drummer Travis Barker and Celebrity DJ AM were traveling on went down in a fiery crash.
Four people were killed and two critically injured.
Travis Barker and DJ AM were transported to a burn center in Augusta, Ga about 75 miles southwest of Columbia and both are said to be in critical condition. Passengers, Chris Baker, 29, of Studio City, Calif., and Charles Still, 25 of Los Angeles died, as did the pilot Sarah Lemmon, 31 of Anaheim Hills, Calif., and Co-pilot James Bland, 52, of Carlsblad. Baker was an assistant to Barker and Still was a security guard for the musician.
The plane apparently departed just before midnight on Friday. Air traffic controllers reported seeing sparks as the plane took off. The plane hurtled off the end of the runway and crashed through antennas and a fence coming to rest on an embankment across a five-lane highway. The plane was quickly engulfed in flames.
At the crash site Saturday, 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.
“It’s absolutely terrible and tragic,” Columbia Mayor Bob Coble said.
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 at 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.
Peter Kastis, Farrell’s manager, said he and Farrell didn’t find out about the crash until they arrived at the airport Saturday morning to find it closed.
“I just hugged them hello less than 24 hours ago. I wish I could hug them now,” Kastis said.