Blink 182 drummer Travis Barker has overcome his fear of flying.
The musician and producer flew on a plane for the first time since the deadly crash 13 years ago that took the lives of four people and left him with 3rd degree burns all over his body. The trip was confirmed by photographs published by TMZ, which show Barker and his girlfriend, Kourtney Kardashian, headed to Cabo on Kylie Jenner's private jet.
"It's a huge deal that Travis flew to Cabo. The plane crash many years ago was extremely traumatizing. He has needed a lot of help to get to this point," a source told People. "Kourtney has been very supportive. She never pushed for him to fly. They have managed to travel in the U.S. without having to fly and Kourtney has been totally fine with it."
The crash, which occurred in 2008, took the lives of Barker's security guard Charles "Che" Still, his assistant Chris Baker, as well as pilot Sarah Lemmon and co-pilot James Bland. Barker was admitted into the hospital with burns covering more than 65% of his body. He and DJ AM were the only two survivors.
"I was told I wasn’t going to run again because I had so many grafts on my feet, and there was even talk of me never playing the drums again," Barker told Men's Health earlier this year.
Instead of accepting defeat, he took it as a challenge.
"As soon as I could walk, I could run. As soon as I could move my hands and my hands healed, I was playing drums. And now I’m in better shape than I’ve ever been."
During the interview, Barker admitted he wanted to overcome his fear of flying, which was debilitating.
"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," he said.
There was a sense of impending doom haunting Barker, who was bracing himself for the next catastrophic event, but the post-traumatic stress has slowly begun to fade. Now, motivating Barker to confront his fears is the feeling of normalcy he could experience when returning home to his children Landon Asher, 17, and Alabama Luella, 15, and telling them about his flight.
"If I do it, and the angels above help me in my travels and keep me safe, I would like to come back and [tell them], ‘Hey, I just flew here, and then I flew home. And everything was fine,'" he said. "I have to tell them, because I almost left them."
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Zoe Papadakis ✉
Zoe Papadakis is a Newsmax writer based in South Africa with two decades of experience specializing in media and entertainment. She has been in the news industry as a reporter, writer and editor for newspapers, magazine and websites.
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