TMZ has a post up titled “Travis Cries for Help in Incredible Fiery Aftermath.” It features local news coverage of the dashboard camera video of a police car that was on the scene right after the learjet crashed Friday night in Columbia, South Carolina. You can’t see Barker but you can hear him pleading for an ambulance and the pain and anguish in his voice as he asks for help. Four people died in that crash, and US Weekly has the heartbreaking details if you’re interested.
The video didn’t originate with TMZ, it’s a sensational video that aired on a local ABC newscast, WOLO-TV. It seems to be common practice to air that type of footage and people will watch it like they’ll slow down for a car crash. Maybe I find it a little heartless because I haven’t watched US television in a while, but it just seems disrespectful to the victims’ families and the badly burned survivors to air it.
New video has emerged of the immediate aftermath of the South Carolina plane crash, and it’s a miracle that anyone survived.
WOLO-TV just posted the dash-cam vid from a local police car, and you can hear what is apparently Travis Barker pleading desperately for help.
[From TMZ]
Meanwhile AM’s ex girlfriend, Mandy Moore, has flown to Georgia to provide support as he is treated in the burn unit of an Augusta hospital. His condition is critical but stable. AM’s doctor says that both he and Barker should make a full recovery.
More details are coming out about the cause of the crash. Some speculated at first that the Learjet may have been overloaded with equipment, but it turns out that a tire burst when the plane was taking off, causing it to careen into a nearby embankment and catch fire. An official for the NTSB is looking into the cause and says that it doesn’t explain the severity of the crash, and that “it is rare for something like that [a burst tire] to end in a fatal accident.”
Here is a photo of the flowers and candles left outside Travis Barker’s store, “The Fast Life,” in West Hollywood, for the victims, Chris Baker and Charles Still. Travis Barker is shown at the VMAs on 9/7/08. Credit: WENN
TMZ is the scummiest.
Jesus. That’s horrible, but since it came from the cop’s dashcam, I feel a little better.
Still, the cops shouldn’t have released it. Bad taste, Columbia PD.
There is just no way I’m going to go watch or listen to that footage.
No way.
Yeah, I was just on TMZ and was completely disgusted! I didn’t watch it, of course. Who would want to? The same people who collect those Faces of Death videos? Morbid assholes.
WOLO is a small market TV station. They often have inexperienced producers making questionable decisions in small markets.
Wow. I don’t want to see that video either, but I am SO not shocked that tmz would have no issues putting it up. Anything for ratings. Sick bastards. 👿
I hate that kind of stuff being put out there in the media, too. Like the hanging of sadam hussain(however you spell it). I had a co-worker who couldn’t understand WHY I wouldn’t want to watch that video. You know what she kept doing? Trying to TRICK me into watching it. Sick. I still haven’t seen that video and I never plan to.
I guess that example isn’t quite the same, since sadam was an evil, murdering, tyrant, and Travis Barker is a singer, but the point is the media putting out footage of people suffering, just to get ratings. That’s just sick and twisted, in my opinion.
I’d rather see a freaky naked orgy than see a person getting killed or hear a recording of someone’s cries of pain. The worst part is that it’s all for ratings. If there was some other thing that we should be getting from the footage, than it wouldn’t be so bad, but they’re just putting it there so people will tune in to see and hear the carnage and suffering. I’m not into carnage and suffering. 😕
Why is it that the American media has NO problem putting death, gore, and suffering in our faces, but a nipple slip? OMG!! Somebody call the police!!! 🙄
P.s. I’m an American, just in case anyone was wondering, after reading my super long post. Sorry for the length, too. 🙂
@notprft – I know, isn’t it sad that we’ve taken something tragic & traumatizing & tried to make entertainment out of it? This reminds me of the coverage for Ruslana Korshunova’s suicide..Fox had no problem airing footage of her body in the street. It’s as if, (no matter what the circumstances or the person involved) we’ve decided that there’s no respect anymore for people involved in these deaths/accidents/whatever.
It makes ya glad not to be a famous person, huh? Yeah, me too.
As if it’s not hard enough for the victims & their family and friends, then they get the joy of seeing and hearing all of the gory details posted on every news & media outlet 24/7. I can’t even imagine how awful that must be. It’s one thing to get the pertinent info out there, but a completely different thing to put up a video of the body or of the victim crying for help. What is the point of that?
I’ve lost loved ones and had no trouble with privacy(since I’m just a “normal” person, not a celeb), but it’s still the hardest thing in the world to struggle through, and that’s WITHOUT dealing with paparazzi and news cameras everywhere. Very sad. 😥
Holy shit. If the originating source of the police department, than isn’t that illegal? A breach of privacy or something? I’m disappointed in those jackasses.
you went to tmz yet you didnt watch it? since we dont know you, I guess we’re just going to have to take your word for it.
Elisha is right; WOLO is small and not very experienced. They said they had “exclusive” footage, meaning obviously the other two broadcasts, WIS and WLTX did NOT want to show it. WOLO, being where the video came from first has had low moral standards since it first aired.
shame on both WOLO and TMZ!!
I usually go to TMZ on a regular basis, but after they posted this video I don’t think I want to anymore. Its pretty disgusting and totally inappropriate. Who wants to see that shh? Seriously, why would anyone want to watch that? Some twisted news.
its a 30 second long clip and it doesnt show much and you can barely even hear him all you hear is a newscaster.
I must be a horrible person cause I watched it. It doesn’t show much & you can barely hear him. The news shows video of personal tragedies all the time – just because this footage contains a famous person – now everyone is gonna stand up & say it’s wrong?
I just tried to go to the WOLO website to register a complaint, and it’s down. I’m hoping it’s because people were bombarding it with complaints, and not because everybody wanted to go to the source to watch the video.
I am boycotting TMZ as well. Their actions are deplorable.
That’s awful. I know people think TMZ is scum, but how did they get ahold of the video in the first place if it was filmed from a police car dashboard? I’d point the finger at the police department! They’re the scum for releasing the video, either intentionally or by a leak. 😯
wow. that´s a new low. even for tmz. on the other hand…several news stations showed heath ledger being carried out of his apartment back then. tv shocks me sometimes. i´d never watch something like that. there´s this thing called decency and respect.
TMZ will burn in hell. That is sickening . Anyone who goes on that webpage is supporting trash.
I don’t think that people who check out TMZ are “trash”, but I do think that the TMZ folks are complete assholes for posting the footage
I don’t go to TMZ anymore because they are the lowest of the low. When HeathL died they exploited that to the max and I quit visitng that site for good. The police cam video is public record, it is released in response to requests. I truly feel for all the families to see the burning plane and know what is happening to their loved ones.
i was so sorry to hear about this….i hope they recover soon and my prayers are with the families of the deceased as well.,,as travis’s and the DJ………..
I removed my bookmark for TMZ earlier this evening in response to their displaying that video. Apparently they’ve taken it down now and in it’s place put up a supposed “last video” of Chris Barker taken by him via cell phone as he boarded his last flight. That may have been taken down as well – I don’t know as I don’t plan to go back.
I rely on THIS site as my main source of celebrity journalism. It’s the first blog I read when I want to catch up on celebrities and many times (when I’m busy) the only blog I peruse. It’s also the only blog I bother to read the comments on. Why? Because I feel this site is tastefully done and the commenters here have both brain cells and decency towards others. Sure a few disagreements occur here but they seem to be undertaken in a mature fashion that respects others.
May TMZ rot in hell. They’ve disgusted me for the last time.
Pat yourself on the back Celebitchy as well as all those that post here :).
No class, TMZ.
I know that gossip at its core is supposed to be a bit backhanded and heartless, but Christ . . .
I’m not listening to that crap. People just don’t get it- this isn’t some movie, this horrible thing happened to real people. It’s frightening how desensitized people are to human suffering.
It makes me sick to think that some bonehead released portions of a rescue tape to the public. After living through the aftermath of a violent car crash, just the thought of the rescue efforts being aired on TV is heart stopping. vdantev sums it up perfectly.
I agree, fluffyrabbit…the writers and moderators here do a fantastic job.
@ FLuffyRabbit- So beautifully said:)
I used to read (waaay back when I first even started looking at gossip online) PerezHilton. Oh boy. It was very depressing after a while and the aggressive often idiotic comments. No moderation at all. I sometimes read D listed but honestly time constraints are such that I just read this one now. Waay easier. And here there are thoughtfully written articles. I like to laugh at the comments here and no one really goads anyone else and I truly feel there is just so much more empathy here. I love you guys *sniffs*
😉
Wow, thats disgusting. That video is not entertainment, its documenting a horrific tragedy.
TMZ, really?
Heartbreaking and sickning……… How does Harvey sleep?
This says EVERYTHING about why America & Americans are so frigging Demented…
notprfect POSTED:
I’d rather see a freaky naked orgy than see a person getting killed.
So they are comparing SEX and seeing group sex as in the same realm as BRUTAL BURNING DEATH????
Americans are so funny… (and I’m an American)…. Ya wonder what the damn RELIGIOUS RIGHT has done to Damage and brain wash these people when comments equivocate BRUTAL DEATH and SEX IN THE SAME SENTENCE!
Just another random thought from the edge from an X-Hollywood Reject,
Craig Amabello
Thats what happens when humanity loses decency. I stopped watching TMZ ages ago. That and Perez Hilton. I don’t want my lunch coming up all them time.
Well, Craig, I was mentioning sex because our media is SOOOOOOOOOO against showing ANY kind of nudity, but they’re all just happy as hell to show people being shot, ran over, stabbed, burned, etc…
Now can you see what I meant, Craig? I did NOT say that because *I* equate sex and burning bodies. (Gross.) And I’m about the FARTHEST from a brainwashed religious person as you can get, so nice try, but you’re waaaay off. 🙄
Thanks for making me laugh, though. 😆
lola – the news generally doesn’t show dead and dying people – only if they’re famous. in fact, it used to be newspapers had a no dead no dying rule for photographs . that’s become less true in the last ten years.
as a plane crash survivor (thank god, no burns) this has been a very engrossing, poke-at-it-see-how-it-feels kind of story for me. thanks for keeping your coverage sympathetic and low-key. way to be classy, y’all
TMZ is the worst of the worst, IMHO. Luckily, those scumbags have taken the vid down.
How completely disrespectful considering the way the pilots died was released today. As the ex of a pilot who was scared to death he would die this way, I will simply say they quite tragically survived the crash and died by other mechanisms. I cried for an hour solid after reading that.
I think – small market or no – that this type of behavior by the media is systemic. “If is bleeds it leads” has grown into a cancer that is destroying journalism .. both print and broadcast.
That is EXTREMELY disrespectful to put that video up anywhere. I hope someone sues TMZ for it. I knew Che Still, and I went to read what it was that caused the accident… I went running out of the room crying because some idiot had put an auto play on that horrific video. To the people whose friends and family died on that plane- that is nothing short of torture to watch that video. It needs to be taken down from everywhere.
They need to leave Adam Barker alone… He just lost two of his best friends, and is in for a very long road of recovery. Get well soon Travis.
RIP Che, we love you sweetpea.