WEST COLUMBIA, S.C. (AP) -- The doomed crew piloting a Learjet that crashed on takeoff, killing four people and injuring two popular musicians, thought a tire blew as they hurtled down the runway, a federal safety official said yesterday.
National Transportation Safety Board member Debbie Hersman said a cockpit voice recording of the Friday-night crash indicates the crew tried to abort the takeoff, but then signaled the efforts were failing.
"The crew reacted to a sound that was consistent with a tire blowout," Hersman said.
Former Blink-182 drummer Travis Barker and celebrity disc jockey DJ AM were critically injured in the crash, but one of their doctors said he expected them to fully recover.
Two of the musicians' close friends and two crew members were killed when the plane shot off the end of the runway, ripped through a fence and crossed a highway. It came to rest on an embankment a quarter-mile from the end of the runway, engulfed in flames.
Hersman said no cause of the crash has been determined and the investigation is ongoing. The plane was traveling at least 92 mph, its minimum takeoff speed, when the crew thought the tire burst, Hersman said.
Pilot Sarah Lemmon, 31, of Anaheim Hills, Calif., and co-pilot James Bland, 52, of Carlsbad, Calif., died in the crash. Also killed were Chris Baker, 29, of Studio City, Calif., and Charles Still, 25, of Los Angeles. Baker was an assistant to Barker and Still was a security guard for the musician.
The two musicians suffered second- and third-degree burns, said Dr. Fred Mullins, medical director of the Joseph M. Still Burn Center in Augusta, Ga.
Barker was burned on his torso and lower body, and DJ AM, whose real name is Adam Goldstein, was burned on an arm and a portion of his scalp, according to a statement released by the hospital. Such injuries can take a year to heal. However, Mullins said he didn't think it would take that long.
Both men were in critical but stable condition, he said.
Barker, 32, was one of the more colorful members of the multiplatinum-selling punk rock band Blink-182, whose biggest album was 1999's CD "Enema of the State" and sold more than 5 million copies in the United States alone.
Goldstein, 35, is a popular DJ for hire who at one time was engaged to Nicole Richie and dated singer/actress Mandy Moore.
Barker and Goldstein performed as part of the house band at the MTV Video Music Awards earlier this month.
First Published: September 22, 2008, 8:00 a.m.
