The horrific 2008 plane crash that killed four passengers and left DJ AM and Travis Barker in "critical but stable" condition still haunts the drummer.
Barker admits that the incident has given him a fear of flying, and that can cause issues when he's trying to tour with Blink 182 for their tour—which kicked off tonight.
"This will be the big tour that supports the album in Europe. Mind you, I'm not flying, so it's hard to say what the band could do or what its potential is, because I can't really get everywhere," the drummer told Red Bulletin magazine.
"I'm contemplating getting knocked out and getting on a plane to Australia. I want to overcome that eventually. When I do, I think it's going to be Qantas. They never had a crash, never had a fatality—knock on wood. It's something I want to overcome for me—and my kids are scared to death to fly. I want them to witness me overcome it."
Investigators from the South Carolina crash had revealed that one of the Learjet's tires blew as it sped toward takeoff. The captain—who only had 35 hours of flight time and had not been properly trained to handle such incidents—made the decision to abort, but the plane was going too fast and ended up crashing into an embankment and bursting into flames.
Barker and DJ AM (who died of an accidental overdose in 2009) were the only survivors.