{"id":360936,"date":"2025-12-22T03:40:24","date_gmt":"2025-12-22T03:40:24","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/360936\/"},"modified":"2025-12-22T03:40:24","modified_gmt":"2025-12-22T03:40:24","slug":"wife-of-nascar-star-sent-harrowing-3-word-text-minutes-before-plane-crash","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/360936\/","title":{"rendered":"Wife Of NASCAR Star Sent Harrowing 3-Word Text Minutes Before Plane Crash"},"content":{"rendered":"

Mere moments before a fatal plane crash Thursday in North Carolina<\/a> took the lives of retired NASCAR<\/a> champion Greg Biffle<\/a> and his family, his wife Cristina Biffle sent her mother a heartbreaking text message that acknowledged their situation in three harrowing words.<\/p>\n

\u201cShe texted me from the plane and she said, \u2018We\u2019re in trouble,\u2019\u201d her mother Cathy Grossu confirmed to People through tears Friday<\/a>. \u201cSo we\u2019re devastated. We\u2019re brokenhearted.\u201d<\/p>\n

The early morning crash Thursday<\/a> killed seven people in total, including 55-year-old Greg Biffle, his 35-year-old wife Cristina, their five-year-old son Ryder and Biffle\u2019s 14-year-old daughter Emma, whom he shared with his ex-wife Nicole Lunders.<\/p>\n

Grossu told People that Greg and Cristina Biffle were at her home just one day prior to the crash, confirming they were heading to Florida for a \u201cbirthday trip.\u201d Greg Biffle was set to turn 56 next Tuesday<\/a>.<\/p>\n

\u201cI don\u2019t remember what the last words that I said to my daughter or to Greg or to my precious Ryder,\u201d she told the outlet. \u201cI don\u2019t remember. I know we hugged, but I don\u2019t remember those last words and that\u2019s going to haunt me. But they were happy.\u201d<\/p>\n

Registered pilot Dennis Dutton and his son Jack, as well as Craig Wadsworth, a beloved motorhome driver for NASCAR racers, were also killed. Their Cessna C550 twin-engine private jet when it crashed at Statesville Regional Airport outside Charlotte.<\/p>\n

Federal flight records viewed by local NBC News affiliate WCNC<\/a> show Dennis Dutton was cleared to fly such planes, but only with a second-in-command on board. The records show that Jack Dutton recently became a certified single-engine pilot.<\/p>\n

\"GregGreg Biffle and his daughter, seen here in at the Daytona International Speedway in 2016.<\/p>\n

Jared C. Tilton\/Getty Images<\/p>\n

Greg Biffle, who used his own helicopter last year<\/a> to help rescue stranded North Carolinians in the aftermath of Hurricane Helene<\/a>, was reportedly certified in March to fly a multi-engine plane. Officials have yet to confirm who was piloting the Cessna on Thursday.<\/p>\n

\u201cTo think that they would be killed on a birthday trip, that was just such a fun time for the family,\u201d Grossu told People. \u201cAnd to see the horrific way that it ended, it\u2019s just, it is so hard to bear. I cannot believe they\u2019re gone.\u201d<\/p>\n

Footage shared on social media showed billowing smoke at the airport in the immediate aftermath of the crash. Heartfelt tributes have since flooded social media as well<\/a>.<\/p>\n

\u201cThey embraced every aspect of their life and every moment,\u201d Grossu said Friday. \u201cAnd it\u2019s such a loss. They touched so many people\u2019s lives. It is so hard to bear. I cannot believe they\u2019re gone.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Mere moments before a fatal plane crash Thursday in North Carolina took the lives of retired NASCAR champion…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":360937,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[446],"tags":[49,48,64735,634,79078,82],"class_list":["post-360936","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-nascar","tag-ca","tag-canada","tag-greg-biffle","tag-nascar","tag-plane-crash","tag-sports"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/360936","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=360936"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/360936\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/360937"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=360936"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=360936"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=360936"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}