BLINK 182 drummer Travis Barker has been a famous face in pop punk circles since the band hit huge levels of fame following the release of the Enema of State album in 1999.
He has been a regular fixture in Blink’s line up from 1998 onwards, but he has also collaborated with a number of other famous pop faces as well as dating reality TV superstar Kourtney Kardashian.
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When was Travis Barker in a plane crash?
In September 2008, Barker was travelling to California from South Carolina alongside friend and DJ Adam “DJ AM” Goldstein when their jet crashed during take-off.
The aircraft in question was a Learjet 60 that had just two years worth of flying experience before the incident, though it did boast 108.5 flight hours with 123 take off and landing cycles.
Captain of the jet was 31-year-old Sarah Lemmon, who had received several notices of disapprovals during her training process.
Four of the six people on board died in the crash, with Barker and Goldstein critically injured.
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What happened?
The aircraft misjudged the distance of the runway, overran the runway end and crashed through the airport boundary fence. The plane crossed South Carolina Highway 302, and came to rest onto an embankment, before bursting into flames.
Both pilots of the aircraft were killed, while Barker and Goldstein suffered horrendous second and third degree burns.
The two survivors, alongside the estates of two of the deceased, sued for damages from both the company behind the aircraft – Learjet as well as tyre manufacturer Goodyear, who they deemed responsible after the accident was sparked by one of the jet’s tyres exploding – causing Lemmon to try and abort the take-off at high speed.
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What has Travis Barker said?
Barker has rarely spoken of the incident that left him diagnosed with post-traumatic stress disorder, but he did relieve the horror moment on the Joe Rogan podcast in late 2019.
The drummer said: “When I jumped through the emergency exit when the plane blew up, I was in such a hurry to exit the plane I jumped right into the jet, which is full of fuel.
“My whole body lit up. I had jet fuel in my whole body. I burped jet fuel for almost three months (after).
“When I jumped into the jets … I started running … I was ripping off my clothes because that’s what my instinct told me to do … but little did I know I was still on fire because I was soaked in jet fuel.”
65% of the drummer’s body was badly burnt and Barker did face the daunting prospect of potentially having his right-foot amputated.
“My right foot almost didn’t make it, that was the thing that was most soaked was my shoes and socks.
“I was running towards a highway and I hear some guy yelling, ‘Stop, drop and roll’, and I heard it through all the chaos of sirens and everything.
“I stopped, dropped and rolled, and the only thing still on fire was my feet. So they were on fire the longest.”
Barker would go on to spend over eleven weeks in hospital after the incident, in which he endured 27 surgeries and skin grafts.
He revealed to Rogan the damaging impact this had on his mental health, stating:
“After my accident … I was four months in a hospital being fed morphine every day.
“When I was in the hospital, I was on so many drugs I didn’t even know my two friends had passed away. I didn’t know the pilots had passed away. I didn’t remember anything.
“I kept thinking everyone was in the hospital, including the two pilots and including my best friends. I thought everyone was in different rooms until two weeks before I left. Then I went crazy … I wasn’t in a good place.
“I was kind of crazy. I was suicidal. I did a lot of post-traumatic therapy when I was in the hospital to calm things down after my surgery. Over time … I started to feel better.”
