Authorities say five adults and two children aboard a Cessna 550 Citation II were killed when the aircraft crashed while landing at Statesville Airport north of Charlotte, North Carolina, on Thursday. The aircraft was owned by retired NASCAR driver Greg Biffle and he died along with members of his immediate family. He and his wife Christine and their son Ryder and Biffle’s daughter Emma were all on the flight. Names of the others have not been released.
Their family issued the following statement: “Greg and Cristine were devoted parents and active philanthropists whose lives were centered around their young son Ryder and Greg’s daughter Emma. Emma was a wonderful human being with a kind soul who was loved by many people. Ryder was an active, curious and infinitely joyful child.” The aircraft was bound for Sarasota when the pilot reported an issue shortly after takeoff and returned to the field. It was lightly raining with poor visibility at the time of the accident. The aircraft caught fire and was destroyed.
Prayers for the family. I feel bad for them and the accident report should be interesting. This is not the Christmas they deserve.
Having no idea of course about what caused this, I still have always been of the opinion that an IFR/IMC flight, if the PIC is anything less than a professional pilot, he/she should have a second pilot to assist with the workload. Several years ago, we had a local Citation with a private owner as PIC depart with a full load of family. They were only minutes after takeoff, being vectored and altitude adjusted by ATC, when control was lost and they hit the lake below at about 400kts. Not long after I got my instrument rating years ago, even in a C172, I started flying IFR with a pilot friend of mine. Not only did we smugly feel like airline professionals, the comfort of the operation was so much better. This was in the Los Angeles airspace though. IFR requires professional level proficiency.
The NTSB initial report stated that ‘Visual Meteorological Conditions prevailed at the 1015 time of the accident with broken ceilings at 1,200′ and 2,200′ and overcast at 5,000′ in drizzle.’ 1015 AWOS data supported that and showed that it was clear 20 minutes earlier at 0955 with 10 mi visibility but changed to heavy drizzle with visibility of 5 miles dropping to 1.75 mi and heavy rain after the accident but with improving visibility.
Videos of the weather conditions at the time of the crash didn’t seem all that bad?
Something caused them to head back to the airport almost immediately after departure? Biffle’s wife texted after takeoff that something was wrong and she was “nervous.” So I don’t think IFR conditions were the primary problem here. Sure sounds like some sort of mechanical issue cause the RTB action which then degraded to more problems during the landing phase … possibly a stall or descending below what would have been a normal glideslope path while under duress and hitting things?
Assuming that Biffle was the PIC, it’s possible he took off in VFR conditions and wound up flying into a piece of weather? Still, I would think he would have had to be on an IFR plan in that type of airplane and could have climbed out of it. There’s more to this story?? Given that Statesville is an uncontrolled airport, it’s possible that he may not have had time to even check in with ATC before something caused him to return. Looks like ADS-B data may be the only definitive source of information available trying to sort it all out. RIP.
I just learned that — besides Biffle — there were two other pilots aboard the airplane. Still unclear who was PIC and what their qualifications were.
There was a CVR and it has been located. That will help figure out what happened.
Capt. Steeeve has a good report on this accident on You Tube. If ;you’ve never watched him, he’s good. There was a type rated , but not authorized to fly single pilot, retired Delta Capt. on board. The other two were not type rated, one being a student pilot. Capt. Steve, doing research, said two or three other Citation rated pilots said they would not fly this series as a single pilot. Too complex. Anyhow, if interested, do a You Tube search. Should pop up.