A federal probe has found that under-inflated tires were one of the causes of a 2008 Learjet crash that killed four people and injured Blink 182 drummer Travis Barker and the disc jockey DJ AM.
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The National Transportation Safety Board (NTSB) also attributed the crash to flight Captain Sarah Lemmon’s decision to abort takeoff when the plane was traveling at a dangerously fast speed. http://www.businessweek.com/news/2010-04-06/business-jet-crash-in-2008-caused-by-tires-pilot-u-s-says.html
Lemmon only had 35 hours of experience flying a Learjet 60, and decided to stop the takeoff even though the plane was traveling at 150 miles per hour.
The jet’s tires hadn’t been checked in three weeks, and on Sept. 18, 2008 it overshot the runway at a Columbia, S.C., airport. The plane was carrying Barker and DJ AM, whose real name is Adam Goldstein, two of their staff members and two pilots. The artists were leaving after performing in Columbia, S.C.
When the pilot attempted to abort the takeoff, all four of the jet’s tires exploded. Parts of the tires hit the plane’s hydraulic system, rendering the brakes useless.
The jet ran off the runway, went through a fence, crossed a five-lane highway, crashed into an embankment and than burst into flames. Barker and Goldstein were the only survivors. Goldstein died a year after the accident of a drug overdose.
The NTSB also found fault with the Learjet’s operator, Global Exec Aviation, for “inadequate maintenance.”
