Blown Tire May Have Caused Travis Barker/DJ AM Crash

Here’s an update on the jet crash involving former Blink-182 drummer Travis Barker and DJ AM, which killed 4 people and left the 2 badly burned:

Reports are coming out that the crew “thought a tire blew as they hurtled down the runway and struggled unsuccessfully to stop the plane.”  According to National Transportation Safety Board member Debbie Hersman, 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.  Barker and DJ AM are in critical but stable condition and expected to fully recover.

Hersman maintains that no cause of the crash has been determined and the investigation is ongoing.  Pieces of tire were recovered about 2,800 feet from where the plane started its takeoff.   The runway is 8,600 feet long. 

Aviation expert Mary Schiavo said the crew would have had just moments to abort or lift off because such a Learjet needs more than 5,000 feet of runway to get in the air. If the plane hit about 138 mph, which can happen quickly during takeoff, the crew would have run out of runway.  Said Schiavo, “If you have to abort a takeoff because of a problem with the plane, you don’t have a lot of runway left because it uses up so much just on its takeoff roll.”

Killed in the crash was pilot Sarah Lemmon, 31, of Anaheim Hills, Calif., and co-pilot James Bland, 52, of Carlsbad, Calif., 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.

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