Near-Death Stories From Celebrities Who Survived Plane Crashes

Publish date: 2024-04-30

Blink-182 drummer Travis Barker has always seemed like a jet-setting sort, but that changed in a hurry in 2008. In September of that year, Barker — along with a security guard, personal assistant, and his good buddy Adam Goldstein, a.k.a. DJ AM — boarded a small plane bound for California from a recent stop in South Carolina. As they were lifting off, a tire blew out, forcing the pilots to attempt to bring it down. Unfortunately, there wasn't enough runway to do so, and the plane burst through a boundary fence, crossed a busy highway, and smashed into an embankment before exploding into a fireball (via Elle).

The only survivors of the crash were Goldstein and Barker, who emerged from the craft literally on fire. He suffered burns to two-thirds of his body, spent nearly three months in the hospital, and endured 27 surgeries and skin grafts — but as long as his physical recovery took, his emotional and psychological recovery took far longer. 

The extreme trauma of the crash and the loss of his friends stuck with him for a long time, causing severe depression and PTSD, according to Men's Health. Fortunately, he did eventually make a full recovery. "There's a million things that could happen to me," he told the publication in 2021. "So why should I still be afraid of airplanes?" That year, Barker took a huge step — onto a plane, the first time he had done so since the crash.

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