“Just flew for the 30th time since my plane crash,” Travis Barker posted to Threads on Wednesday (Jul. 12), referencing the 2008 plane crash that killed four of the six passengers onboard and left the blink-182 drummer with burns over 65% of his body. For thirteen years after that crash, Travis, 47, refused to board a plane, so the fact that he had his thirtieth flight is enormous – and he owes it to Kourtney Kardashian. “Wouldn’t be able to tour or enjoy life again the way I do without the healing love of my amazing wife,” wrote Travis. “I love you @kourtneykardash
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Kourtney, 44, has been one of the driving forces helping Travis overcome the fear and trauma from his plane crash. “Kourtney has gently been trying to get Travis to fly for months,” a source close to the couple told HollywoodLife EXCLUSIVELY in August 2021. “She never pressured him, but they’ve been talking about it for months. This didn’t just happen overnight. He’s been working very hard to get to this day for a long time now. He’s dealt with so much emotional trauma from the accident, and it really was because of Kourtney that he was ready.”
In 2021, Travis took his first flight since the crash. He joined Kourtney for a flight to Cabo San Lucas, Mexico. Shortly afterward, he posted a photo of him standing in front of a plane, Kourtney in his arms, as she wrapped her legs around him. “With you, anything is possible,” Travis captioned the shot. In 2022, Travis flew overseas with his family for his and Kourt’s wedding in Italy.
Travis is the sole survivor of the Sep. 19, 2008, small aircraft crash that killed his security guard, Charles Still, his assistant, Chris Baker, and the two pilots. Travis and his friend/co-collaborator Adam “DJ AM” Goldstein. The plane took off from South Carolina to California when the passengers heard a loud bang, per Elle. The pilots reported that a tire had blown, and they needed to abort take-off. However, they ran out of runway space and crashed through the airport boundary fence.
Still and Baker were killed upon impact. The plane burst into flames, and Travis said he was covered in jet fuel when he emerged from the wreckage, causing him to catch fire. He would spend eleven weeks in the hospital and undergo around thirty surgeries.
The incident left Travis with PTSD. “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,” Travis told Men’s Health in 2021. “The closer I was to it, it felt like I was closer to the bad stuff than I am to the good stuff. I felt closer to the experience of trying to escape, [to] being in an accident and being burned, trying to grab my friends from a burning plane.”
Sadly, DJ AM was found dead in his New York City apartment in 2009. His death was ruled an accidental overdose from a cocktail of cocaine, cold medicine, and prescription drugs, per Reuters.
