Saturday, September 20, 2008

Plane Crash.



COLUMBIA, S.C. (KABC) -- Two names well-known to Los Angeles nightlife are the sole-survivors of a deadly plane crash in South Carolina.
Former Blink-182 drummer, Travis Barker, and Adam Goldstein--known professionally as DJ AM, were critically injured in the plane crash that claimed the lives of four other people.

Federal Aviation Administration spokeswoman Kathleen Bergen said the plane carrying six people was departing shortly before midnight Friday when air traffic controllers reporting seeing sparks. The plane headed for Van Nuys, Calif., went off a runway, through a fence and crashed on a nearby road, officials said.

Barker and DJ AM were in critical condition at a burn center in Augusta, Ga., about 75 miles southwest of Columbia, hospital spokeswoman Beth Frits said.

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 co-pilot James Bland, 52, of Carlsbad, according to the county coroner. Baker was an assistant to Barker and Still was a security guard for the musician.

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, across a five-lane road next to the airport and up an embankment. 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.

"It's absolutely terrible and tragic," Columbia Mayor Bob Coble said.

The show, which included performances by former Jane's Addiction singer Perry Ferrell and singer Gavin DeGraw, drew 10,000 people into the streets of Five Points, the neighborhood near the University of South Carolina, Coble said.

Neither Ferrell nor DeGraw were in the plane, their representatives told AP on Saturday.

One concertgoer said TRVSDJ-AM's performance was unique and different.
"It was literally one of the best shows I've ever scene," said Brett Flashnick, a freelance photographer who works for The Associated Press and attended the concert for a local newspaper.

-KABC News

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