{"id":359301,"date":"2025-12-21T07:36:18","date_gmt":"2025-12-21T07:36:18","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/359301\/"},"modified":"2025-12-21T07:36:18","modified_gmt":"2025-12-21T07:36:18","slug":"no-mayday-call-reported-in-greg-biffle-plane-crash","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/359301\/","title":{"rendered":"No Mayday Call Reported in Greg Biffle Plane Crash"},"content":{"rendered":"

No Mayday call was apparently sent from Greg Biffle\u2019s plane before its horrific crash at the Statesville (N.C.) Regional Airport; however, it was only about 10 minutes from the time the Cessna Citation 550 took off until it plummeted to the ground, NTSB board member Michael Graham said.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe are trying to get recordings from the various frequencies that the aircraft may have been on and any other witness statements that may have heard anything on the common frequency,\u201d Graham said during Friday\u2019s media briefing, held about six miles from the Statesville airport where the horrendous crash occurred Thursday morning. <\/p>\n

Related Story<\/p>\n

After taking off at about 10:05 a.m., NTSB investigator in charge Dan Baker said the plane turned left to the west, followed by another left turn back to the east towards the airport, approximately five minutes after taking off. Baker said the plane initially hit a runway light stanchion located about 1,800 feet from the runway and trees on the edge of Lakewood Golf Club. It took out two other runway approaching lighting systems, hit the ground, slid across the road and took out an airport perimeter fence. It continued to slide in a ball of fire, stopping just short of the runway\u2019s threshold. <\/p>\n

The fire consumed the majority of the fuselage. Baker said both engines were with the main wreckage. Graham said the debris field covered 1,800 feet from the \u201capproach end of the runway.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"flagsDeb Williams<\/p>\n

Flags at half-staff in Mooresville, North Carolina.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s fairly long and it is scattered wide and out, so it\u2019s going to take some time to document all of that,\u201d Graham said. <\/p>\n

The NTSB, which has a 16-person team investigating the crash, was unable to fly its drone over the debris field on Friday due to high winds in the area. <\/p>\n

Baker said \u201cvisual meteorological conditions prevailed\u201d with drizzle and broken ceilings at 200 and 2,200 feet at the time of Thursday\u2019s crash. He also said a 5,000-foot ceiling was present and the wind was calm with five statute miles of visibility. <\/p>\n

Related Story<\/p>\n

The plane\u2019s cockpit voice recorder has been retrieved and sent to Washington, DC, to be analyzed, but there was no flight data recorder. The NTSB is asking for witnesses and anyone with video, photos or debris to contact them at witness@NTSB.gov. <\/p>\n

\u201cAdditional video on (the plane\u2019s) approach would be really helpful to us to get an idea of how high or low that aircraft was,\u201d Graham said. <\/p>\n

Graham said a preliminary report would be available in 30 days, but it would be 12 to 18 months before the final report would be released. <\/p>\n

\u201cI want to emphasize that this is the beginning of a very long process and we will not jump to any conclusions while we\u2019re here on the scene in North Carolina, nor will we speculate,\u201d Graham said during the NTSB briefing held at a Statesville hotel where the flags in front of the business flew at half-staff. <\/p>\n

\"nascarJared C. Tilton\/\/Getty Images<\/p>\n

Greg Biffle and his daughter, Emma, in 2016.<\/p>\n

Graham said they had yet to determine who was flying the plane since there were three people on board who were licensed pilots. He said they didn\u2019t yet know if one or two people were at the controls since both were allowed.<\/p>\n

\u201cThere is a waiver that you can have to have a single pilot operate that aircraft, and many, many pilots do that,\u201d Graham said. <\/p>\n

In addition to the NTSB and FAA, Texon Aviation Inc., which manufactured the business jet in 1981, is participating in the investigation. Pratt Whitney, Canada, who manufactured the aircraft\u2019s engine, is serving as a technical advisor in the investigation. The NTSB also has formed groups to conduct in-depth investigations to specific areas. Those groups are:<\/p>\n

Systems. This covers examining components of the plane\u2019s hydraulic, electrical, navigational, pneumatic, and associated systems together with instruments and elements of the flight control system. The plane\u2019s maintenance records also will be examined. Powerplants. This involves the engines and the engines\u2019 accessories.Operations. This covers documenting the flight\u2019s history and its crew members, flight experience, training and certification. <\/p>\n

The NTSB doesn\u2019t know when the Statesville airport will reopen. <\/p>\n

\"Lettermark\"<\/p>\n

A North Carolina native, Deb Williams is an award-winning motorsports journalist who is in her fourth decade covering auto racing. In addition to covering the sport for United Press International, she has written motorsports articles for several newspapers, magazines and websites including espnW.com<\/a>, USA Today, and The Charlotte Observer. Her awards include the American Motorsports Media Award of Excellence, two-time National Motorsports Press Association writer of the year, and two-time recipient of the Russ Catlin award. She also has won an award in the North Carolina Press Association\u2019s sports feature category.\u00a0 During her career, Deb has been managing editor of GT Motorsports magazine and was with Winston Cup Scene and NASCAR Winston Cup Scene for 18 years, serving as the publication\u2019s editor for 10 years. In 2024 she was inducted into the NMPA Hall of Fame.\u00a0<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"No Mayday call was apparently sent from Greg Biffle\u2019s plane before its horrific crash at the Statesville (N.C.)…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":359302,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[446],"tags":[49,48,782,154902,784,1642,634,154901,82],"class_list":["post-359301","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-nascar","tag-ca","tag-canada","tag-content-type-news","tag-contentid-5a8d4bb5-16a6-4d54-9e05-8324f329d709","tag-displaytype-standard-article","tag-locale-us","tag-nascar","tag-shorttitle-no-mayday-call-reported-in-greg-biffle-plane-crash","tag-sports"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/359301","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=359301"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/359301\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/359302"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=359301"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=359301"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=359301"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}