Federal safety investigators have ruled that the September 2008 Learjet crash involving Blink-182 drummer Travis Barker and the recently deceased Adam "DJ AM" Goldstein was caused by under-inflated tires. The crash killed all four others on board the plane.

After more than 18 months of investigations, the National Transportation Safety Board said that a combination of the under-inflated tires, a design flaw with the jet's thrust reversers and the decision by the plane's captain to abort takeoff too late contributed to the accident that happened in Columbia, South Carolina. NTSB chair Deborah Hersman said, "This accident didn't have to happen."

According to findings, all four of the plane's tires exploded as the aircraft was accelerating on the runway and pieces of the shredded tires damaged the plane's hydraulic system causing its brakes to fail. The charter company operating this particular plane said that they believed tire pressure was check three weeks prior to the accident. FAA regulation don't allow commercial pilots to use instruments to measure tire pressure. The pilot--who had only 35 hours experience with this model of plane--made the decision to abort takeoff after the plane had already exceeded the speed at which takeoff could be safely rejected. The report also showed that a damaged electronic sensor caused the plane's computers to read that it was airborne while still on the ground, automatically closing the thrust reversers which could've been used to slow the plane.

The aircraft ran off the runway and crashed through a fence before speeding across a five-lane highway and hitting an embankment. Barker and Goldstein were able to escape the vehicle before it caught fire, but both were critically burned.

Goldstein died less than a year later of an accidental drug overdose.