Copilot James Bland 52 of Carlsbad, Ca was killed in a fiery Learjet crash in South Carolina along with the pilot, Sarah Lemmon 31 of Anaheim Hills, Chris Baker, 29, of Studio City and Charles Still, 25, of Los Angeles, according to the Lexington County coroner.
Among others on the plane were Travis Barker Former Blink-182 drummer and Adam Goldstein known as celebrity DJ AM who were critically injured.
The Learjet, which was en route to Van Nuys, was taking off shortly before midnight Friday when air traffic controllers saw sparks. In what officials described as a "high-speed overrun" the jet veered off the end of the runway, through a grassy area, a perimeter fence and across a road, slammed into a berm and became engulfed in a "significant fire," said National Transportation Safety Board spokesman Peter Knudson.
A trail of black soot led off a runway, across a five-lane road next to the airport and up an embankment. The nose of the aircraft was gone and the roof was missing from two-thirds of the charred plane.
The plane is owned by Global Exec Aviation, a Long Beach-based charter company, and was certified to operate last year, an NTSB official said.
A 10-member investigative team from the NTSB, which expects to be onsite for up to a week, secured and removed the cockpit voice recorder and sent it to a lab in Washington, D.C., for evaluation. Because of the ferocity of the fire following the crash, investigators could not say whether the data were damaged, but will announce what the quality of the recording was as soon as it is known.
Air traffic controllers did not know if the Learjet had become airborne before the crash, which occurred in clear weather with light winds. The pilots had filed a flight plan from Columbia to Van Nuys with no fuel stops scheduled. As part of the investigation, the NTSB will be looking at the jet's maintenance records, the pilots' medical history and training and their activities going back to 72 hours before the crash.
Relatives of co-pilot James Bland, 52, gathered today at the home of his younger sister, Laura Bland, in Redondo Beach.
"He always said this could happen," Laura Bland said in a phone interview. "He lost a couple of friends in different accidents, but of anybody we knew, he was just so conscientious that we didn't expect this at all."
Laura Bland said her brother started his piloting career at age 17, moving to Tulsa, Okla., to attend the Spartan College of Aeronautics and Technology.
"When he was a little kid, my grandfather would take him to the Orange County airport and watch the planes take off, and he'd say, 'I'm going to do that someday!' " she said. "But he took piloting very seriously, I mean this was someone who was tremendously responsible and wouldn't pay a bill even one day late."
James Bland went on to work for police departments in Laguna Beach and Santa Ana, and then spent 20 years working as a helicopter pilot for U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement in Coronado, Calif. For the last two years, he had worked as a pilot for various private jet companies based out of Southern California.
A family man, Bland shared his Carlsbad home with his wife Anne, 46, and 16-year-old daughter, Erin. The eldest of three children, he assumed a patriarchal role after his father died at 59. Jim was born in Orange, Orange County, California. "He was like a father to me," Laura said. "If there was ever an emergency in the family, he always was the first to try to fix it."
A longtime friend of Bland, the co-pilot, said he flew anti-smuggling missions 20 years for the U.S. Customs Service and also flew missions for the Santa Ana Police Department and U.S. Border Patrol.
"He was such an experienced pilot, it had to be something beyond their control," said Tim Ferrill, a Huntington Beach, Calif., pilot. "He was an absolutely meticulous pilot, very thorough and not a risk-taker at all."
Among others on the plane were Travis Barker Former Blink-182 drummer and Adam Goldstein known as celebrity DJ AM who were critically injured.
The Learjet, which was en route to Van Nuys, was taking off shortly before midnight Friday when air traffic controllers saw sparks. In what officials described as a "high-speed overrun" the jet veered off the end of the runway, through a grassy area, a perimeter fence and across a road, slammed into a berm and became engulfed in a "significant fire," said National Transportation Safety Board spokesman Peter Knudson.
A trail of black soot led off a runway, across a five-lane road next to the airport and up an embankment. The nose of the aircraft was gone and the roof was missing from two-thirds of the charred plane.
The plane is owned by Global Exec Aviation, a Long Beach-based charter company, and was certified to operate last year, an NTSB official said.
A 10-member investigative team from the NTSB, which expects to be onsite for up to a week, secured and removed the cockpit voice recorder and sent it to a lab in Washington, D.C., for evaluation. Because of the ferocity of the fire following the crash, investigators could not say whether the data were damaged, but will announce what the quality of the recording was as soon as it is known.
Air traffic controllers did not know if the Learjet had become airborne before the crash, which occurred in clear weather with light winds. The pilots had filed a flight plan from Columbia to Van Nuys with no fuel stops scheduled. As part of the investigation, the NTSB will be looking at the jet's maintenance records, the pilots' medical history and training and their activities going back to 72 hours before the crash.
Relatives of co-pilot James Bland, 52, gathered today at the home of his younger sister, Laura Bland, in Redondo Beach.
"He always said this could happen," Laura Bland said in a phone interview. "He lost a couple of friends in different accidents, but of anybody we knew, he was just so conscientious that we didn't expect this at all."
Laura Bland said her brother started his piloting career at age 17, moving to Tulsa, Okla., to attend the Spartan College of Aeronautics and Technology.
"When he was a little kid, my grandfather would take him to the Orange County airport and watch the planes take off, and he'd say, 'I'm going to do that someday!' " she said. "But he took piloting very seriously, I mean this was someone who was tremendously responsible and wouldn't pay a bill even one day late."
James Bland went on to work for police departments in Laguna Beach and Santa Ana, and then spent 20 years working as a helicopter pilot for U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement in Coronado, Calif. For the last two years, he had worked as a pilot for various private jet companies based out of Southern California.
A family man, Bland shared his Carlsbad home with his wife Anne, 46, and 16-year-old daughter, Erin. The eldest of three children, he assumed a patriarchal role after his father died at 59. Jim was born in Orange, Orange County, California. "He was like a father to me," Laura said. "If there was ever an emergency in the family, he always was the first to try to fix it."
A longtime friend of Bland, the co-pilot, said he flew anti-smuggling missions 20 years for the U.S. Customs Service and also flew missions for the Santa Ana Police Department and U.S. Border Patrol.
"He was such an experienced pilot, it had to be something beyond their control," said Tim Ferrill, a Huntington Beach, Calif., pilot. "He was an absolutely meticulous pilot, very thorough and not a risk-taker at all."
Copilot James Bland 52 of Carlsbad, Ca was killed in a fiery Learjet crash in South Carolina along with the pilot, Sarah Lemmon 31 of Anaheim Hills, Chris Baker, 29, of Studio City and Charles Still, 25, of Los Angeles, according to the Lexington County coroner.
Among others on the plane were Travis Barker Former Blink-182 drummer and Adam Goldstein known as celebrity DJ AM who were critically injured.
The Learjet, which was en route to Van Nuys, was taking off shortly before midnight Friday when air traffic controllers saw sparks. In what officials described as a "high-speed overrun" the jet veered off the end of the runway, through a grassy area, a perimeter fence and across a road, slammed into a berm and became engulfed in a "significant fire," said National Transportation Safety Board spokesman Peter Knudson.
A trail of black soot led off a runway, across a five-lane road next to the airport and up an embankment. The nose of the aircraft was gone and the roof was missing from two-thirds of the charred plane.
The plane is owned by Global Exec Aviation, a Long Beach-based charter company, and was certified to operate last year, an NTSB official said.
A 10-member investigative team from the NTSB, which expects to be onsite for up to a week, secured and removed the cockpit voice recorder and sent it to a lab in Washington, D.C., for evaluation. Because of the ferocity of the fire following the crash, investigators could not say whether the data were damaged, but will announce what the quality of the recording was as soon as it is known.
Air traffic controllers did not know if the Learjet had become airborne before the crash, which occurred in clear weather with light winds. The pilots had filed a flight plan from Columbia to Van Nuys with no fuel stops scheduled. As part of the investigation, the NTSB will be looking at the jet's maintenance records, the pilots' medical history and training and their activities going back to 72 hours before the crash.
Relatives of co-pilot James Bland, 52, gathered today at the home of his younger sister, Laura Bland, in Redondo Beach.
"He always said this could happen," Laura Bland said in a phone interview. "He lost a couple of friends in different accidents, but of anybody we knew, he was just so conscientious that we didn't expect this at all."
Laura Bland said her brother started his piloting career at age 17, moving to Tulsa, Okla., to attend the Spartan College of Aeronautics and Technology.
"When he was a little kid, my grandfather would take him to the Orange County airport and watch the planes take off, and he'd say, 'I'm going to do that someday!' " she said. "But he took piloting very seriously, I mean this was someone who was tremendously responsible and wouldn't pay a bill even one day late."
James Bland went on to work for police departments in Laguna Beach and Santa Ana, and then spent 20 years working as a helicopter pilot for U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement in Coronado, Calif. For the last two years, he had worked as a pilot for various private jet companies based out of Southern California.
A family man, Bland shared his Carlsbad home with his wife Anne, 46, and 16-year-old daughter, Erin. The eldest of three children, he assumed a patriarchal role after his father died at 59. Jim was born in Orange, Orange County, California. "He was like a father to me," Laura said. "If there was ever an emergency in the family, he always was the first to try to fix it."
A longtime friend of Bland, the co-pilot, said he flew anti-smuggling missions 20 years for the U.S. Customs Service and also flew missions for the Santa Ana Police Department and U.S. Border Patrol.
"He was such an experienced pilot, it had to be something beyond their control," said Tim Ferrill, a Huntington Beach, Calif., pilot. "He was an absolutely meticulous pilot, very thorough and not a risk-taker at all."
Among others on the plane were Travis Barker Former Blink-182 drummer and Adam Goldstein known as celebrity DJ AM who were critically injured.
The Learjet, which was en route to Van Nuys, was taking off shortly before midnight Friday when air traffic controllers saw sparks. In what officials described as a "high-speed overrun" the jet veered off the end of the runway, through a grassy area, a perimeter fence and across a road, slammed into a berm and became engulfed in a "significant fire," said National Transportation Safety Board spokesman Peter Knudson.
A trail of black soot led off a runway, across a five-lane road next to the airport and up an embankment. The nose of the aircraft was gone and the roof was missing from two-thirds of the charred plane.
The plane is owned by Global Exec Aviation, a Long Beach-based charter company, and was certified to operate last year, an NTSB official said.
A 10-member investigative team from the NTSB, which expects to be onsite for up to a week, secured and removed the cockpit voice recorder and sent it to a lab in Washington, D.C., for evaluation. Because of the ferocity of the fire following the crash, investigators could not say whether the data were damaged, but will announce what the quality of the recording was as soon as it is known.
Air traffic controllers did not know if the Learjet had become airborne before the crash, which occurred in clear weather with light winds. The pilots had filed a flight plan from Columbia to Van Nuys with no fuel stops scheduled. As part of the investigation, the NTSB will be looking at the jet's maintenance records, the pilots' medical history and training and their activities going back to 72 hours before the crash.
Relatives of co-pilot James Bland, 52, gathered today at the home of his younger sister, Laura Bland, in Redondo Beach.
"He always said this could happen," Laura Bland said in a phone interview. "He lost a couple of friends in different accidents, but of anybody we knew, he was just so conscientious that we didn't expect this at all."
Laura Bland said her brother started his piloting career at age 17, moving to Tulsa, Okla., to attend the Spartan College of Aeronautics and Technology.
"When he was a little kid, my grandfather would take him to the Orange County airport and watch the planes take off, and he'd say, 'I'm going to do that someday!' " she said. "But he took piloting very seriously, I mean this was someone who was tremendously responsible and wouldn't pay a bill even one day late."
James Bland went on to work for police departments in Laguna Beach and Santa Ana, and then spent 20 years working as a helicopter pilot for U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement in Coronado, Calif. For the last two years, he had worked as a pilot for various private jet companies based out of Southern California.
A family man, Bland shared his Carlsbad home with his wife Anne, 46, and 16-year-old daughter, Erin. The eldest of three children, he assumed a patriarchal role after his father died at 59. Jim was born in Orange, Orange County, California. "He was like a father to me," Laura said. "If there was ever an emergency in the family, he always was the first to try to fix it."
A longtime friend of Bland, the co-pilot, said he flew anti-smuggling missions 20 years for the U.S. Customs Service and also flew missions for the Santa Ana Police Department and U.S. Border Patrol.
"He was such an experienced pilot, it had to be something beyond their control," said Tim Ferrill, a Huntington Beach, Calif., pilot. "He was an absolutely meticulous pilot, very thorough and not a risk-taker at all."
Sponsored by Ancestry
Advertisement
Records on Ancestry
Advertisement
