NASCAR's Greg Biffle wasn't flying his plane before crash that killed him, 6 others

NTSB report reveals Greg Biffle wasn't piloting the jet that crashed, killing him and six others, citing gauge malfunctions.

Retired NASCAR driver Greg Biffle was not flying his own jet when it crashed last month, killing him and six others, according to a Friday (January 30, 2026) 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 (550 metres) 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.