What's hard about this is that I met Chris back in '06 at the +44 show in Berlin.He walked around putting up FSAS stickers.When two of my friends helped him with a big one he promised us to get Travis to come outside of the venue while the opening act plays.That kinda didn't work out but right when +44 came on stage he was searching for us and gave us drumsticks and other stuff.Basically it seemed like Lil' Chris was a super nice guy and he didn't deserve that.RIP.
Former Blink-182 drummer Travis Barker and Adam Goldstein, known as celebrity DJ AM, were critically injured in a fiery Learjet crash in South Carolina that killed four Southern Californians, including Barker's bodyguard and his personal assistant, authorities said.
The pilot, Sarah Lemmon of Anaheim Hills, and copilot, James Bland of Carlsbad, were also killed, according to the Lexington County coroner.
The Learjet was taking off shortly before midnight Friday with six people aboard when air traffic controllers saw sparks. The plane, which was en route to Van Nuys airport, veered off the end of the runway, through a grassy area and a perimeter fence, slammed into a berm and became engulfed in a "significant fire," said Federal Aviation Administration spokeswoman Kathleen Bergen.
Barker and Goldstein were in critical but stable condition this afternoon at Joseph M. Still Burn Center in Augusta, Ga., about 75 miles southwest of the crash site in Columbia, S.C., said hospital spokeswoman Beth Frits. She declined to comment on their injuries.
Chris Baker, 29, of Studio City and Charles Still, 25, of Los Angeles -- both members of Baker's entourage -- were among the dead.
According to music industry sources, Charles "Che" Still was a longtime friend of Barker's and sometimes worked as a bodyguard when the star drummer performed in small shows. Barker and Goldstein had performed together under the name TRVSDJ-AM at a free concert in Columbia on Friday night.
Baker, nicknamed "Little Chris," worked as a personal assistant to Barker and had appeared sometimes on MTV's "Meet the Barkers" the domestic-life reality show that aired in 2005 and 2006.
Michael Creger, a friend of Still, said the bodyguard's family was reeling from the news. They were upset, too, that early media reports of the accident focused on the injured Barker instead of the dead passengers. Still's family had thought the group in South Carolina would be returning home on a commercial flight, but travel plans apparently had changed.
The athletic Still was "a gentle giant" who aspired to be a professional athlete and had been working part time for Barker, Creger said. He was a "huge music fan" who, with his tattoos and stature, was an imposing figure to strangers. His friends, however, knew him as "a loving guy, the kind of guy would do anything for anybody," Creger said.
"His mother in Riverside is just devastated by this because Che's dad died not long ago also," Creger said.
At the crash site today, the air was still heavy with the odor of jet fuel. A trail of black soot led off a runway, across a five-lane road next to the airport and up an embankment. The nose of the aircraft was gone and the roof was missing from two-thirds of the charred plane.
An investigative team from the National Transportation Safety Board has been dispatched to South Carolina.
"It's absolutely terrible and tragic," Columbia Mayor Bob Coble said.
The plane is owned by Global Exec Aviation, a Long Beach-based charter company, and was certified to operate last year, an NTSB official said.
Mark Shater, spokesman for the charter company, declined to comment on the crash or the pilots. He said the company is sending a management team to South Carolina to cooperate with the FAA and the NTSB.
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