Multiple people have been killed after a private jet owned by NASCAR driver Greg Biffle crashed and exploded into flames on Friday morning (AEDT).
As first reported by The New York Post, the aircraft crashed during an incident at a regional airport in North Carolina.
It has now emerged one of Biffle’s closest friends was waiting on to see the star driver and watched the tragedy unfold from the ground.
The close friend has posted a message on social media, claiming Biffle and his family were on-board the private jet.
The Cessna C550 aircraft went down at Statesville Regional Airport, which is frequented by NASCAR teams and Fortune 500 companies, local police have said.
Footage shot by WSOC-TV captured the aircraft entirely engulfed in flames as emergency crews rushed onto the runway.
“I can confirm there were fatalities,” Iredell County Sheriff Darren Campbell said, though he declined to say how many or who may have been on board.
Biffle — a 55-year-old semi-retired NASCAR driver affectionately known as “The Biff” — owns the plane through GB Aviation Leasing, public records show.
It wasn’t immediately clear who was on board the jet at the time and authorities have not identified any of the dead.
However, Biffle’s motorsports-personality friend, Garrett Mitchell, claimed in a social media post that the NASCAR favourite and his family were flying to see him.
“Unfortunately, I can confirm Greg Biffle, his wife Cristina, daughter Emma and son Ryder were on that plane,” Mitchell wrote on Facebook, where he has previously posted messages to the family.
“Because they were on their way to spend the afternoon with us. We are devastated. I’m so sorry to share this.”
Mitchell is Facebook friends with the family, with other friends writing on Cristina Biffle’s page begging her to answer her phone and praying that the news is not true.
The plane — which costs at least $4 million — had taken off from the regional airport, located about 45 miles north of Charlotte, but quickly turned around after failing to even make it to 60m, FlightAware data show.
Witnesses who were playing golf adjacent to the airport recalled dropping to the ground at the Lakewood Golf Club as the plane went overhead.
“We were like, ‘Oh my gosh! That’s way too low,’” said Joshua Green of Mooresville, adding that there was debris all over the ninth hole.
“It was scary.”
AccuWeather reported there was drizzle and clouds around the airport at the time of the crash.
The city-owned airport “provides corporate aviation facilities for Fortune 500 companies and several NASCAR teams,” according to its website.
Biffle, a married father of two, is a 19-time winner on NASCAR’s Cup Series and a one-time Busch series champion.
He made headlines last year for piloting his privately owned chopper to make a daring, caught-on-camera rescue of a trapped Hurricane Helene victim.
The National Transportation Safety Board and the Federal Aviation Administration are probing Thursday’s wreck, officials said.
It was recently reported Biffle has career earnings of around $87m.
— This story originally appeared on The New York Post and has been republished with permission
