AP PhotoMore details on the causes of the fatal Learjet crash that left Travis Barker and DJ AM badly burned but steadily recovering have been revealed, after cockpit recordings were released by the Federal Aviation Administration.
"Roll the equipment; we're going off the end," copilot James Bland is heard telling air traffic control officials. (The recordings can be heard here and here.)
Bland's warning was the last communication on the Sept. 19 recording before the private plane shot off the Columbia, S.C., runway and came to a fiery end.
Later in the recording, a controller can be heard telling the pilot of an incoming plane, "We've had an emergency," and instructing the aviator to "fly straight ahead" and land at another airport.
"We see it down there and it doesn't look good," a redirected pilot tells the controllers.
At another point, a controller is heard saying that he has attempted to contact the Learjet's pilots, but that they failed to give their "idents" or otherwise respond.
"He went right off the end," the controller tells emergency responders. "You can see the smoke."
The recording backs earlier findings by the National Transportation Safety Board that the flight crew had informed airport controllers that they were heading off the runway.
Early reports also indicated that the pilot and copilot, both among the four dead in the accident, believed they may have blown a tire prior to attempting takeoff, but no sounds on the recordings—at least those released this week—have yet borne that out. However, remnants of shredded tires were found in the aftermath of the crash.
The NTSB is expected to release two more reports on the incident next year.