Former NASCAR driver and Washington native Greg Biffle was killed alongside his wife, two kids, and three others, when a private jet crashed at a North Carolina airport Thursday, Dec. 18, authorities said.
The crash occurred around 10:15 a.m. at the city-owned Statesville Regional Airport in North Carolina, when a Cessna C550 went down while landing, according to the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA), which is leading the investigation.
Biffle, 55, was aboard the plane with his wife Cristina and their kids, son Ryder and daughter Emma, police said. Also onboard were Dennis Dutton, his on Jack, and Craig Wadsworth.
In a joint statement hours later, the victims’ family said they were “devastated by the loss of our loved ones. This tragedy has left all of our families heartbroken beyond words.”
Emergency responders did not speculate on a possible cause of the crash. Local media reported that the plane took off from Statesville Regional Airport bound for Florida shortly after 10 a.m., then quickly turned back toward the runway. The aircraft crashed while attempting to land.
Images from the scene showed the jet engulfed in flames on the runway following impact.
Statesville Regional Airport serves corporate aviation clients, Fortune 500 companies, and several NASCAR teams, according to the city’s website. The airport is located near the Interstate 77 and Interstate 40 interchange, roughly 10 minutes from downtown Statesville.
Garrett Mitchell, a YouTube creator known for his racing-focused content, said members of Greg Biffle’s family were en route to spend the afternoon with him when the plane crashed.
“We are devastated,” Mitchell wrote in a Facebook post.
Biffle, a NASCAR Hall of Fame nominee and licensed pilot, had previously used his aircraft to assist with disaster relief efforts. Last year, he flew a private helicopter to help deliver supplies to communities in western North Carolina that were cut off by flooding after Hurricane Helene, according to reports at the time.
Biffle is a well-known professional stock car racer who rose from Pacific Northwest short tracks to national prominence in NASCAR. Born in Vancouver, Washington, and raised in nearby Camas, Biffle began racing locally before breaking into the national circuit in the mid-1990s.
He won championships in both the NASCAR Craftsman Truck Series and the Xfinity Series and recorded 19 wins in the NASCAR Cup Series over a career that spanned more than a decade.
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