Sunday, 18 October 2015

Weekly News Update 5

This week’s story is the tragic tale of a man and his daughter’s instinct that the private jet they were on would crash. Blink-182 rocker Travis Barker was travelling to South Carolina airport on September 19 2008 when in the air during the flight, blew out a tire and burst into flames. Before Barker left to travel away, his daughter who was 3 at the time, Alabama, repeatedly said to him “The roof’s gonna come of Daddy”. Barker reassured her that it would not, but as he tells his story as a survivor now, he can’t get his head round the fact his daughter had said those words and this tragic explosion took place.

The plane attempted to abort the landing but instead the Learjet 60 smashed through the fence of the South Carolina airport, ran across a highway and collided with an embankment on the far side. Travis was 1 of 2 survivors, but along with the 2 pilots that sadly died his personal assistant Chris Baker and his bodyguard Che Still both died too. The tragic news is that Che Still only went on the flight last minute because Barker’s ex wife Shanna Moakler was not comfortable with living their 2 small children behind.

Described in his own words, Travis said ‘My whole body got covered with fuel and caught fire, from my legs all the way to my back. I started running. As I ran, I took off my shirt, I took off my hat, I took off my shorts — but I couldn’t get the fire off me. I was naked, moving as fast as I could, holding my genitals — everything else was on fire — and I kept running, hoping that would put out the flames. At that moment, I felt like I was running for my family. I didn't care about anything except being with my kids, my father, my sister, Shanna...I didn't think I was going to survive.

This story is extremely interesting because the young girl had suspected, and at such a young age, that something was to go wrong, and for it to actually happen is very strange. I think this story was put in the news to highlight the dangers of the plane journeys, but I also think a lot of the theories about plane explosions and crashes that are around at the moment could be highlighted in this story too.

5 comments:

  1. This is a really interesting story, especially as it attracts a variety of audiences - for example, Blink-182 fans and conspiracy theorists. You have effectively described the story and offered an insight as to why the story may have made the news. To improve, perhaps consider the context of the newspaper.

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  2. Good story and extremely detailed with a good mix of your opinion and fact as well. To improve, maybe consider adding what newspaper or website you got the story from, the writer and the context.

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  3. I find this story very fascinating and shocking equally. I enjoyed reading it and got me thinking as to how the young girl was able to detect such. Your article was very informative and also brief with good details and visual proof. In area of improvement i will agree with Sophia, if you could include the newspaper who produced this article, other than that it is fantastic. Well done.

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  4. Overall, this was a good story with the important use of your opinion and detailed content. However, something to improve on for next time is including the source of the story and who wrote it.
    Well done

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  5. good work you included all of the tools to make a successful story.

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