COLUMBIA, S.C. -- Former Blink-182 drummer Travis Barker and celebrity DJ AM were critically injured in a fiery Learjet crash in South Carolina that killed four people, authorities said Saturday.
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, whose real name is Adam Goldstein, were in critical condition at a burn center in Augusta, Ga., about 75 miles southwest of Columbia, hospital spokeswoman Beth Frits said.
Both are reported to have been critically burned.
Two other passengers and two crew members died, said the National Transportation Safety Board. Their identities were not immediately available.
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
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