Nearly two decades ago, Travis Barker narrowly survived a plane crash that killed four people and left him with third-degree burns covering almost 70 percent of his body.
Despite the tragedy, the Blink-182 drummer managed to find a silver lining amid the calamity.
“I never went to rehab—I was beginning therapy, and I was in the mindset that I wanted to get sober. But I was sort of forced to get sober.”
The deadly crash occurred on Sept. 19, 2008, as Barker was traveling in a private plane from Columbia, South Carolina, to Van Nuys, California. Also aboard the flight were the drummer’s security guard, Charles Still; his assistant, Chris Baker; and his friend, Adam Goldstein, better known as DJ AM.
While taking off at Columbia Metropolitan Airport, a tire on the chartered Learjet 60 exploded, forcing pilots Sarah Lemmon and James Bland to abort the flight. The plane crashed, crossing South Carolina Highway 302, before coming to a rest at an embankment, where it caught fire.
Barker said he was the only one awake during the crash, which killed Still, Baker, Lemmon, and Bland.
“It was quick, everything was really quick,” he recalled.
“Plane went out of control, caught fire, and then hit an embankment. And then everyone was dead on impact, besides me and AM. He was the only person I could get to ‘cause he was on the side of me,” Barker said.
“I went forward to try to get to everyone else, and my arms caught fire, my hands caught fire, and then that’s when I jumped out of the emergency exit—jumped into the jet that was full of fuel.”
According to Barker, his entire body caught fire. Goldstein helped him extinguish the flames.
“Maybe a minute later ... the plane completely burst into flames,” Barker said.
The musician subsequently spent months in burn centers, receiving skin grafts and undergoing multiple surgeries.
“My legs all the way up to like the top of my back was all severely burnt,” he said in the podcast.
“And what they do is they take good skin from the front of your body and from the top of my back, and they use it to add to the skin where you were burnt ... they basically use the good skin on your body to replace all the burnt skin.”
Goldstein died in August 2009 from an accidental drug overdose, nearly a year after surviving the crash. He was 36.
Barker, who had a fear of flying before the crash, said he had previously begun using prescription medications and opioids as a way to cope with his anxiety. After the harrowing accident, he avoided air travel for more than a decade.
“At the end, when I don’t need to fly anymore, I have no drug problem,” he said. “I didn’t need to really numb myself anymore.”
Barker began flying again in 2021. However, in an October 2023 interview with the Los Angeles Times, he admitted to still feeling anxious during flights.
“It takes a little piece of my life every time I fly,” he said.
“The amount of stress and anxiety it causes is just unbearable. It brings up all this old trauma, and sometimes I’m like, ‘Is this worth it?’ But I don’t like anything having a hold on me, either—I don’t like being afraid, and I don’t like having things from my past control my future.”
Barker credited his wife, 45-year-old television personality Kourtney Kardashian, with helping him overcome his fear of flying. The couple, who married in May 2022, share one son, Rocky.
“I think the power of love really helped me,” he told the publication. “Kourt made it so I fly, my kids fly now. She healed us.”
On July 12, 2023, Barker celebrated his 30th flight by issuing a post on the social media platform Threads.
“Just flew for the 30th time since my plane crash,” he wrote, per E! News.
“Wouldn’t be able to tour or enjoy life again the way I do without the healing love of my amazing wife. I love you.”
Kardashian reposted the message in response, writing: “So proud of my husband.”
