Retired NASCAR driver Greg Biffle wasn't flying plane before crash that killed him and 6 others, NTSB says

Retired NASCAR driver Greg Biffle was not flying his own jet when it crashed last month in North Carolina, killing him and six others, according to a Friday report from federal safety officials who also concluded that while an experienced pilot was at the controls, no one else on board was qualified to be the required copilot.

The preliminary report from the National Transportation Safety Board said that Biffle and the retired airline pilot at the controls, Dennis Dutton, and his son Jack, who were all licensed pilots, noticed problems with gauges malfunctioning on the Cessna C550 before it crashed while trying to return to the Statesville Regional Airport in North Carolina.

The plane erupted into a large fire when it hit the ground about a third of a mile from the airport's runway.

The NTSB made clear that Jack Dutton was sitting in the copilot seat. Neither Jack Dutton nor Biffle had the right endorsement on their pilot's licenses to serve as a copilot on that plane, but it's not clear whether the experience of the copilot played any role in the crash. The report said that a thrust reverser indicator light wasn't working before takeoff, but after the plane got into the air, the pilot's altimeter and some other instruments weren't working.

The nature of the problems with the plane isn't clear at this stage in the investigation, partly because the cockpit voice recorder cut out at times and NTSB experts have only just begun to dig into what caused the crash. Over the radio, Jack Dutton announced, "We're having some problems here," and the cockpit recorder captured part of the conversation between the three pilots about the issues with the plane.

Biffle's wife, Cristina, and children Ryder, 5, and Emma, 14, were killed in the crash along with his friend, Craig Wadsworth.

Cristina's mother, Cathy Grossu, told CBS News last month she and her daughter were texting "all day long," including during the flight. 

"Then she said something like 'We're in trouble, emergency landing.' And I texted back, 'What's wrong with the plane?'" Grossu told CBS News. "Then the next thing was (the SOS alert) that you get from your automatic Apple phones when you have an accident or something. And so I knew that something was wrong." 

Biffle, 55, won more than 50 races across NASCAR's three circuits, including 19 at the Cup Series level. He also won the Trucks Series championship in 2000 and the Xfinity Series title in 2002.

In 2024, Biffle was honored for his humanitarian efforts after Hurricane Helene struck the U.S., even using his personal helicopter to deliver aid to flooded, remote western North Carolina.

Hundreds of people in the NASCAR community gathered at an arena in Charlotte earlier this month to honor Biffle at a public memorial service.

The jet had departed Statesville Regional Airport, about 45 miles north of Charlotte, about 10 minutes before it crashed while trying to return and land.

The plane's speed and altitude fluctuated significantly during the brief flight. At one point, the plane quickly soared from 1,800 feet up to 4,000 feet before descending again. Just before the crash, it was only a couple of hundred feet off the ground. Experts said its path was consistent with a flight crew that experienced an issue and needed to return quickly.