Biffle’s plane was supposed to fly to Florida but instead returned to Statesville

The Cessna C550 that crashed at the Statesville Regional Airport today was supposed to spend most of the day in Florida.

The plane, owned by retired NASCAR driver Greg Biffle, crashed Thursday morning about 45 miles from Charlotte. Biffle, his wife Cristina and their two children died.

Flight tracking data show the plane left the Statesville Regional Airport around 10 a.m., flew southwest several miles and turned around abruptly. The planned route appeared to extend to Sarasota.

According to Flight Aware, the plane was intended to fly from Sarasota to Treasure Cay and remain on the island for less than an hour before flying to Fort Lauderdale. The Cessna was scheduled to leave Fort Lauderdale less than two hours later and return to Statesville.

News outlets and others worked to reconstruct the aircraft’s expected path with available data, including in this post shared by WCNC.

Seven people died when the plane crashed, making it more deadly than the vast majority of aviation accidents investigated by the National Transportation Safety Board in North Carolina. Out of about 600 aviation accidents investigated by the National Transportation Safety Board since the 1960s, only nine others resulted in seven or more deaths, according to a Charlotte Observer analysis of federal data.

Investigators have assessed three fatal plane crashes at the Statesville airport prior to this one over the last several decades, according to the data.

In 1998, two people died when the pilot of a Piper PA-24-260 flew into fog and heavy rain and lost control. In 2006, a pilot trying to land during low-cloud cover stalled out and crashed into trees, killing two people. The next year, an amateur-built plane crashed there killing one after the plane’s fabric cover got caught in a propeller.

This story was originally published December 18, 2025 at 5:21 PM with the headline "Biffle’s plane was supposed to fly to Florida but instead returned to Statesville."

Caitlin McGlade

The Charlotte Observer

‪(980) 236-0823‬

Caitlin McGlade is an investigative data reporter with about 15 years of experience holding accountable powerful people in Arizona, Kentucky, Florida and Ohio. Her work prompted a variety of reforms, including Arizona’s first-ever standards for assisted living memory care, and won numerous national awards.