Las Vegas Weekly

April 8, 2010 · 10:47 AM

Travis Barker, DJ AM plane crash blamed on underinflated tires, pilot

By Robin Leach

Travis Barker and DJ AM at LAX.

Photo: LAX

Blink-182 drummer Travis Barker and the late celebrity deejay Adam Goldstein (DJ AM) were badly burned -- but escaped with their lives -- when a private Learjet crashed on takeoff Sept. 19, 2008, killing four other people onboard.

Government investigators for the National Transportation Safety Board said yesterday that their federal investigation was completed and that the crash was due to underinflated landing gear tires. The crash took the lives of both pilots and two other passengers.

DJ AM subsequently took his own life last August, with friends saying he never fully recovered from the crash. Travis has gone on to team up with another deejay for tour concerts, but in hospital interviews after the deadly and fiery crash said he would be scarred for life as a result.

NTSB investigators reported: “All four main landing gear tires of the jet were severely underinflated.” They also cited the Learjet 60’s captain, Sarah Lemmon, who halted the takeoff as the tires disintegrated on the runway.

Photo: Shane O'Neal/LAX

DJ AM and Travis Barker rock LAX in the Luxor in their first Las Vegas performance since both were injured in a plane crash in South Carolina on Sept. 19, 2008.

The NTSB report stated: “She should have continued with a takeoff because there was too little runway left to safely stop the plane.”

The crash, which we reported here extensively on Vegas DeLuxe, took place in Columbia, S.C., after Travis and DJ AM had appeared together in concert. They were the only survivors.

Robin Leach has been a journalist for more than 50 years and has spent the past decade giving readers the inside scoop on Las Vegas, the world’s premier platinum playground.

Follow Robin Leach on Twitter at Twitter.com/Robin_Leach.

Follow Vegas DeLuxe on Twitter at Twitter.com/vegasdeluxe.

Follow VDLX Editor Don Chareunsy on Twitter at Twitter.com/VDLXEditorDon.

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