Travis Barker flew on a plane for the first time since the deadly 2008 plane crash which killed four people and left the Blink-182 drummer with third and fourth degree burns on more than half of his body.
TMZ reports that on Saturday, Barker flew to Cabo with his girlfriend, Kourtney Kardashian.
The crash on September 19th, 2008 occurred just after takeoff as the plane overran the runaway and crashed into a fence. The plane’s two pilots and two of its four passengers were killed instantly; the two lone survivors, Barker and DJ AM, suffered critical injuries.
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Barker spent more than 11 weeks in a hospital, undergoing 26 surgeries and multiple skin grafts. He eventually recovered from his physical injuries and returned to playing music, but the mental trauma persisted for years.
“I was dark,” Barker said of the PTSD he experienced in the years following the crash. “I couldn’t walk down the street. If I saw a plane [in the sky], I was determined it was going to crash, and I just didn’t want to see it.”
“Trying to grab my friends from a burning plane,” he continued, “That haunted me for a long time.”
As such, Barker refused to fly for over a decade, opting instead to travel by bus to Blink-182’s touring engagements.
Earlier this year, Barker first suggested his openness to flying again. “I might fly again ✈️,” he tweeted in June.
Six weeks later, he did just that.
I might fly again ✈️
Advertisement— Travis Barker (@travisbarker) June 25, 2021