Travis Barker has spoken about his horror plane crash 10 years ago in the Joe Rogan Experience podcast. Photo / AP
Travis Barker has spoken about his horror plane crash 10 years ago in the Joe Rogan Experience podcast. Photo / AP
It was the horror accident nobody should've survived.
But in a stroke of luck, Travis Barker — the former drummer for punk rock band Blink-182 — became one of the luckiest men alive.
On September 19, 2008, Barker and his close friend and musical partner Adam Goldstein were two of six passengers who boarded the doomed Learjet bound for Los Angeles from Coumbia, South Carolina.
But instead of reaching their destination, Barker and Goldstein faced the biggest fight of their life. The fight to survive.
Racing down the runway, the private jet aborted takeoff and hurtled through the airport's fence and on to a highway. Investigators say the emergency decision was due to a burst wheel that sent the jet crashing into an embankment before it burst into flames, killing four people.
The plane quickly erupted into an inferno, with Barker and Goldstein the only two able to escape before the flames consumed the aircraft.
An investigator looks over the debris left by the Learjet that was carrying former Blink-182 drummer Travis Barker and DJ Adam Goldstein. Four others on board were killed. Photo / AP
In an emotional interview with podcast host Joe Rogan for The Joe Rogan Experience, the now 42-year-old singer/songwriter delved into the horrific ordeal that has forever changed his life 10 years on.
"When I jumped through the emergency exit when the plane blew up, I was in such a hurry to exit the plane I jumped right into the jet, which is full of fuel," he explained to Rogan.
"My whole body lit up. I had jet fuel in my whole body. I burped jet fuel for almost three months (after).
"When I jumped into the jets … I started running … I was ripping off my clothes because that's what my instinct told me to do … but little did I know I was still on fire because I was soaked in jet fuel."
Barker, who received burns to 65 per cent of his body, said he almost lost his right foot in the accident.
"My right foot almost didn't make it," he said. "That was the thing that was most soaked was my shoes and socks.
"I was running towards a highway and I hear some guy yelling, 'Stop, drop and roll', and I heard it through all the chaos of sirens and everything.
"I stopped, dropped and rolled, and the only thing still on fire was my feet. So they were on fire the longest."
Adam Goldstein and Travis Barker were the only survivors from the plane crash. Goldstein died of an overdose 12 months after the accident. Photo / AP
Spending more than 11 weeks in hospitals and burns centres, as well as undergoing 27 surgeries and skin grafts, the famous rocker said his recovery from the horror burns left him in a dark place.
"After my accident … I was four months in a hospital being fed morphine every day," he recalled.
"When I was in the hospital, I was on so many drugs I didn't even know my two friends had passed away. I didn't know the pilots had passed away. I didn't remember anything.
"I kept thinking everyone was in the hospital, including the two pilots and including my best friends. I thought everyone was in different rooms until two weeks before I left. Then I went crazy … I wasn't in a good place.
"I did a lot of post-traumatic therapy when I was in the hospital to calm things down after my surgery. Over time … I started to feel better."
Barker revealed in his memoir that he offered friends $US1 million to help him commit suicide following his recovery.
"I would call friends of mine and say, 'Yo, I'll deposit $1 million into whoever's bank account (if you help me end my life …)," he said during an interview with Good Morning America in 2015.
"They had to take my phone out of my room (to stop me calling)."
In his interview with Rogan, the father-of-two said he lost most of his tattoo work from the extensive burns, which required almost 30 surgeries to fix.
The debris left by the Learjet that was carrying former Blink-182, drummer Travis Barker and Adam Goldstein. Photo / AP
"I was a mess," he explained.
"I had smoked so much weed and taken so many pills (prior to the accident), I would often wake up (during surgery).
"In about 11 of my 30 surgeries in the burns centre, I woke up swinging on doctors. I'd be opened up and just go crazy. I would try get off the table … I don't think I knew what was going on, but they just couldn't give me enough medication to knock me out because I'd been self-medicating for so long and abusing meds for so long. I'd just wake up in the middle of anaesthesia."
Barker said his two young children pulled him through, but he knew the accident was just as tough on his daughter Alabama and son Landon as it was on him.
"Learning how to walk again and being able to take a shower by myself again … they were the good points that helped me turn a corner," he said.
Barker said he grew up with a fear of flying and has not stepped on a plane since the accident, but he is not ruling out air travel in the future.
Musician Travis Barker said his kids pulled him through the dark times following his accident. Photo / AP
"I don't like travelling … after my accident I hate travelling," he said.
"I don't fly … I haven't flown since my accident. I'll take the Queen Mary 2 (cruise ship) to Europe, but I would rather be in a raft than plummeting into the ocean.
"I know they say it's way more dangerous to be on the road in a bus than be in a plane, but the thought of me leaving to play some show and something happening while they're at home … it f**ks me up.
"It's crippling, but I try not let it be too much of a handicap."
