Greg Biffle’s friend, the former NASCAR racer Kenny Wallace, thinks his friend’s tragic plane crash was caused by engine trouble.
Biffle died along with his wife, Cristina, and their two children, Emma and Ryder when their private jet crashed in North Carolina. Seven people lost their lives in total after the Cessna C550 jet, owned by Biffle, slammed into the runway at Statesville Regional Airport around 10.15am.
An investigation to establish the exact cause of the tragedy is underway. It appears that the traveling party knew something was wrong as Biffle’s mother-in-law, Cathy Grossu, told People she received a text from her daughter moments before the crash which said: ‘We’re in trouble.’
Grossu added: ‘She texted me from the plane and she said, “We’re in trouble.” And that was it. ‘So we’re devastated. We’re brokenhearted.’
Now, Wallace has suggested that a motor issue in the plane caused the death of his close friend.
‘Here’s what I think,’ he said on his YouTube channel. ‘I think the plane took off, I think they lost a motor, and then, I guess it started having a lot of drag on it. In other words… yes, we know it should fly just perfectly with one motor.
Greg Biffle died with wife Cristina and five others in a North Carolina plane crash in December
Biffle’s friend, Kenny Wallace, speculated on what happened in the moments before the crash
‘I think we lost a motor. That’s where all the up and down was taking place. They decide to come back. The flaps are down, and they don’t have any horsepower.
‘There was so much drag and they had the throttle wide open, they just didn’t make it. I think that’s what happened. They just didn’t make it to the runway.
‘May the Lord be with everybody, this is a very heartfelt discussion. It was a very tragic loss. Everybody wants to know what happened. I think it was a tragic loss of life and that’s what I respectfully think is what happened.
‘It has been a sad, sad couple of weeks here with the Greg Biffle tragedy.’
Craig Wadsworth, another NASCAR star, Dennis Dutton and his son Jack were also killed in the crash, according to a statement from the families.
The plane initially took off from the airport then circled back before the deadly landing, meaning there might have been a mechanical issue, WCNC’s chief meteorologist Brad Panovich, said after looking at public flight data.
The Federal Aviation Authority (FAA) told the Daily Mail that the Cessna C550 crashed while attempting to land.
Cristina’s mom added that the group were heading to Florida for a ‘birthday trip’ when the horrifying crash occurred.
Seven died in the North Carolina inferno, including Biffle’s two children
‘To think that they would be killed on a birthday trip, that was just such a fun time for the family,’ she added. ‘And to see the horrific way that it ended, it’s just, it is so hard to bear. I cannot believe they’re gone.’
She also revealed the last time she had seen Cristina and Biffle was just hours earlier when they had visited her at her house.
‘I don’t remember what the last words that I said to my daughter or to Greg or to my precious Ryder,’ she explained.
‘I don’t remember. I know we hugged, but I don’t remember those last words and that’s going to haunt me. But they were happy.’
