Clicking Noises and Then Hell on Travis Barker and DJ AM's Tragic Flight

NTSB releases transcripts of the cockpit conversations from fatal Learjet crash

By Breanne L. Heldman Aug 07, 2009 8:11 PMTags
DJ AM, Travis Barker plane crashAP Photo

Clicking noises are never good.

You don't want to hear them in your home or in your car—and you certainly don't want to hear them on an airplane.

Transcripts of the cockpit conversations from Travis Barker and DJ AM's tragic Learjet accident in South Carolina last September have just been released and reveal that such a sound was the first indication something horrible was about to happen.

Just reading the exchange is eerie.

A few minutes before takeoff, pilots James Bland and Sarah Lemmon discussed their plan of action in the case of an emergency. They agreed they had "plenty of runway." Things seemed normal as the plane raced toward takeoff velocity.

Then suddenly, after a series of ominous clicking noises, Bland asks copilot Lemmon, "What was that?"

Lemmon responds that she doesn't know. Moments later, she curses and hits the brakes.

"What is going on here?" one of them asks.

The pilots quickly realized things were going to get ugly...and fast.

"Roll the equipment, we're going off the end," Bland says, essentially alerting ambulances and fire trucks to the potential emergency.

Seconds later, the plane went off the runway and burst into flames. Bland, Lemmon, Barker's assistant, Chris "Little Chris" Baker, and Barker's security guard, Charles Still, all died in accident. Barker and AM were able to get away from the fiery wreckage but both suffered severe burns.

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