MOG

Investigators are saying that a tire blowout upon takeoff Friday night doomed the passengers, including DJ AM and former Blink-182 drummer Travis Barker, aboard the Learjet headed for Van Nuys, California. Barker and DJ AM, also known as Adam Goldstein, had played under the bill TRVSDJ-AM at a free outdoor concert in Columbia, South Carolina, near the University of South Carolina, earlier that day.

Out of the six aboard the flight, including Pilot Sarah Lemmon, 31, of Anaheim Hills, Calif., and co-pilot James Bland, 52, of Carlsbad, Barker’s personal assistant and business partner Chris Baker, 29, of Studio City, Calif., and Barker’s security detail Charles Still, 25, of Los Angeles., only DJ AM and Barker made it out of plane crash alive with severe burns and both remain in critical but stable conditions at the Joseph Still Burn Center in Augusta, Georgia. Barker was burned on his torso down, while DJ AM was severly burned on his scalp and arm and reportedly put into an incubator to prevent any infection.

Both are expected to make a full recovery.

Chris Baker, who also managed Barker's LA punk boutique FastLife, is left behind by his wife and 2 year-old boy. He would have celebrated his one year wedding anniversary next month. His family is also grieving after the loss his 24 year-old brother in a fatal motorcycle accident just a month ago.

(Chris Baker and his son Sebastian, via sacbee.com)

Feds are saying that the plane, a twin-engine, 11-seat business jet with no prior problems, was already traveling at about 92 mph when the tire blew out and the crew decided to abort take off. A cockpit voice recording was retrieved by the National Transportation Board that indicates the effort to abort the take off failed. Fragments of the tire were found on the runway, about 2,800 feet away from the crash site. The plane overran the runway  and "went through a grassy, overrun area. It came in contact then with airport lights, an antenna array, through the airport perimeter fence, crossed a road and came to rest on [an embankment] on the other side of the road," according to the National Transportation Safety Board.

A witness driving along the road said he saw a "fireball rolling across the highway" and two men who were "basically dumped out of the airplane upon the crash, who were standing in the road on fire, hitting each other trying to put the fire out."