User:GhostRiver/crash

On September 19, 2008, a Learjet 60 business jet (registration N999LJ) operated by Global Exec Aviation crashed during take-off from Columbia Metropolitan Airport in West Columbia, South Carolina.

Aircraft
The aircraft involved was a Bombardier Learjet 60 with the registration number N999LJ. Bombardier Aviation began producing the Learjet 60 business jet in 1993 as the successor to the 55C. Powered by two Pratt & Whitney Canada PW305A engines, the Learjet 60 was configured for two aircrew members and up to eight passengers. Prior to 2008, the Learjet 60 had only been involved in one crash: in August 2007, pilots touching down in Westhampton, New York, reported losing control of the aircraft during touchdown, but all aboard escaped without injury. Aircraft N999LJ had received its initial type certificate on December 14, 2006, and at the time of the crash, it had logged 108.5 flight hours and 123 engine cycles since new.

Crew
Aircraft N999LJ was captained by Sarah Lemmon, a 31-year-old pilot from Anaheim Hills, California. In her childhood, Lemmon had lived near Skagit Regional Airport, which inspired her to obtain her pilot license. A graduate of Stanford University, she had planned to enroll in medical school but soon became disillusioned with medicine and returned to Los Angeles to give flying lessons. After acquiring her jet pilot certification, she was hired by Bombardier. Lemmon had received her airline transport pilot (ATP) license for the Learjet 60 on October 25, 2007. She also held a first-class airman medical certificate, which had been issued on April 29, 2008. Global Exec Aviation, who operated the accident aircraft, had hired Lemmon on January 4, 2008. At the time of the crash, Lemmon had accumulated 3,140 flight hours, including 2,040 hours as the pilot in command and 35 flight hours in the Learjet 60.

Lemmon's copilot was James Bland, a 52-year-old resident of Carlsbad, California. Born in Orange, Bland became interested in aviation when his grandfather took him to watch the planes at John Wayne Airport. He attended college at the Spartan College of Aeronautics and Technology. After working as a police officer, Bland served as a pilot for U.S. Customs and Border Protection from 1987 until his retirement in 2007. Bland had received his ATP license for the Learjet 60 on March 1, 2007, and his first-class airman medical certificate on July 18, 2008. Global Exec Aviation hired him on August 8, 2008. At the time of the crash, he had logged approximately 8,200 flight hours, including 7,500 as the pilot in command and 300 in a Learjet 60.

Passengers
At the time of the crash, the aircraft was carrying four passengers: Travis Barker, Adam Goldstein, Chris Baker, and Charles Still. Both Barker and Goldstein were professional musicians. Barker, born in Fontana, California, had been the drummer for Blink-182 from 1998 until the band's hiatus in 2005. Goldstein, meanwhile, was a disc jockey who performed under the name DJ AM. The artists had been in the Five Points neighborhood of Columbia, South Carolina, to perform a free concert as a duo named TRV$DJAM, a collaboration which they had debuted earlier that month as the house band for the 2008 MTV Video Music Awards.

The musicians were accompanied by two of Barker's longtime friends and employees. Chris Baker, aged 29, was Barker's personal assistant and had appeared on Meet the Barkers, a reality television series about Barker's life airing on MTV from 2005 to 2006. Charles "Che" Still, aged 25, was Barker's security guard, and at the time of his death, he had planned to open a store featuring clothes from Barker's Famous Stars and Straps line. Barker's ex-wife Shanna Moakler was supposed to travel with them as well, but she canceled her plans after seeing photographs of the plane and experiencing "a bad feeling" about the impending flight.