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The Vox Box

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More than the Roof is on fire…

A quarter-mile is all it took to transform a working plane into a firey ball of metal.

ex-Blink-182 drummer Travis Barker and celebrity DJ AM were critically injured in a Learjet crash occuring hours after their performance for South Carolina college students.

Air traffic controllers reported seeing sparks after the plane took off, carrying six people including Barker and DJ AM (whose real name is Adam Goldstein).

The flame-engulfed aircraft was found on an embankment a quarter-mile away, crumpled across the highway.

Witness William Owens says he saw a 'fireball' blaze across the road about 600 feet in front of his vehicle. As he approached the scene Owns saw Goldstein and Barker's attempts to remove their burning clothing while telling them of 4 other people still on board the flaming jet.

"Oh my God' was all they were saying," Owens said of barker and Goldstein. "They stood there and it's like - didn't know what to do. None of us did."

As of Saturday afternoon, both Barker and DJ AM were in 'critical but stable condition', located at a burn center in Augusta, Georgia.

Read more here.

What would you do if you were witness William Owens - approaching a firey crash that proved to be life threatening?

In 2006, then-editor Steve Smith of The Spokesman-Review had the idea of starting a publication for an often forgotten audience: teenagers. The Vox Box was a continuation of the Vox, an all-student staffed newspaper published by The Spokesman-Review. High school student journalists who staffed the Vox made all content decisions as they learn about the trade of journalism. This blog's mission was to give students an opportunity to publish their voices. The Vox Box and the Vox wrapped up in June 2009, but you can follow former staffers' new blog at http://voxxiez.blogspot.com.