A former Nascar driver is believed to be among seven people killed in a plane crash at a North Carolina regional airport, an official says.
A highway patrol spokesman said people on the ground confirmed that running back Greg Biffle was among those who boarded the plane.
The Cessna C550 crashed while landing at Statesville Regional Airport around 10:20 a.m. local time (3:20 p.m. GMT), officials investigating the incident told reporters.
“Heartbreaking news from Statesville,” North Carolina Governor Josh Stein posted on
The Cessna C550 plane is owned by a private company associated with Greg Biffle, a retired Nascar pilot, the BBC’s US partner CBS reported.
Professional baseball player Mitchell Garret wrote on Facebook that Biffle and his family were on their way to spend the afternoon with him.
“Unfortunately, I can confirm that Greg Biffle, his wife Cristina, his daughter Emma and his son Ryder were on that plane… because they were on their way to spend the afternoon with us,” he wrote on Facebook. “We are devastated. I am so sorry to share this.”
Statesville Airport Director John Ferguson described the plane as a corporate jet and said it was already engulfed in flames when it arrived at the scene.
The airliner took off around 10:06 local time and was briefly in the air before the crash.
It crashed at the east end of the runway and authorities still have no information on the cause of the accident.
Statesville Airport will remain closed until further notice while crews clear debris from the runway, Ferguson told reporters.
Officials did not provide any information about deaths or people aboard the plane during the news conference.
The National Transportation Safety Board, which is leading the investigation, said it was launching a team to investigate the deadly crash. The team hopes to arrive on site Thursday night.
Statesville Regional Airport (KSVH) is owned by the city of Statesville, which is about 45 minutes north of Charlotte.
It also provides aviation facilities for Fortune 500 companies and several Nascar racing teams.
Biffle, whose racing career spanned two decades, was named one of Nascar’s Top 75 drivers in 2023. The 55-year-old won 19 Cup races in the Xfinity Series and Craftsman Truck Series.
Known as The Biff, the Vancouver, Washington, native received national attention in 1995 during that year’s Nascar Winter Heat Series, according to his Nascar profile.
He made a name for himself in the Craftsman Truck Series, winning Rookie of the Year in 1998 and the series championship in 2000.
He was then named the 2001 Xfinity Series Rookie of the Year and won the 2002 championship, becoming the first driver with championships in both the Xfinity Series and the Truck Series.
He also co-founded the organization’s Sand Outlaws series. Although he scaled back his racing after 2016, he apparently came out of retirement in 2019 for a one-off race at Texas Motor Speedway, which he won.
“Competing is competing,” he told Nascar.com in 2021. “It’s that adrenaline, you want to be better than the competition, you want to build a better part and have a faster car. I just enjoy the competition.”
