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Crash Eyewitness: I Heard Them Say, "Oh, My God"
New details are emerging about the plane crash that killed four and left Travis Barker and Adam "DJ AM" Goldstein critically injured.
William Owens, a truck driver who witnessed the crash Friday night in Columbia, S.C., recounts the ordeal exclusively to E! News.
Speaking from his Columbia home, Owens says that he was driving in his van to a friend's house down Highway 302, near the Columbia airport, shortly before midnight when he saw "a ball of fire going across the road."
"It ignites—it crashed, in fact—went across the highway and crashed, dumping two guys out onto the highway, and they were on fire, I'm seeing that as I approach, and the plane is burning slightly," Owens tells E! News.
The "two guys" were Barker and Goldstein.
Owens says he approached the scene to offer help. "I crossed the jet fuel to get closer to the guys who were still beating the flames off of them. The DJ is helping the drummer get out of his pants; he strips off and he's standing there naked. The two go to the grass. They're circling; they're, like, stunned. I certainly am as well; I don't know what to do. They don't know what to do."
Owens says he asked who else was on the plane, and Goldstein told him there were four others.
"We both took a step to go towards the plane like maybe we could do something. We couldn't, because now close to a minute has expired and the plane is burning badly. It was a totally helpless, hopeless situation. I knew they were dead and I was sure of it, because by now the plane is boiling, if the wreck didn't get them I know the flames did and I just hope that they were either dead or unconscious.
"I heard no screams, I was grateful for that," Owens says.
Owens recalls both Barker and AM were walking around and appeared to be OK. "I didn't see the burns, I just know that they were on fire and I figured they put themselves out and they were fine. Like I said, they weren't crybabies."
He describes the two as shocked, not crying or speaking: "All I heard...them say was 'Oh, my god.' I said nothing more to them; they said nothing more to me."
Owens left after about 10 minutes when other passers-by stopped to help and he knew an ambulance was on its way.
"The two men were in good hands, someone had provided clothing for the drummer," he says. "I think it¹s miraculous that their plane just crashed and neither one of them [was] injured whatsoever."
The complete interview airs Tuesday on E! News at 7 p.m.
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