‘I watched my friend die.’ What a witness saw in the Greg Biffle plane crash
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Greg Biffle, 6 others killed in NC plane crash
A plane crashed early Thursday at Statesville Regional Airport, killing seven people, including NASCAR star Greg Biffle, his wife and two children, and three other people. Biffle, who flew aircraft in WNC to help victims of Hurricane Helene, owned the Cessna that crashed mid-morning north of Charlotte.
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Michael Wingo was so close to Thursday’s deadly Statesville plane crash that “I could feel the heat from here.” The Cessna crash claimed seven lives, including NASCAR star Greg Biffle and his family.
Wingo witnessed the disaster unfold from his front porch near Old Airport Road while letting his dog, Taz, outside. His house sits next to a field across from the airport.
“I was standing right here with my dog,” Wingo said, gesturing to his porch. “I looked over and saw it. When it exploded, I could feel the heat from here.” He immediately dialed 911.
The victims were Biffle and his wife, Cristina, their 5-year-old son, Ryder, and Greg’s teenage daughter, Emma, Dennis Dutton, his son Jack, and Craig Wadsworth, according to a joint statement from the victims’ families.
As the reality of the crash set in, Wingo was haunted by the plane’s trajectory. “Knowing if that plane had been angled in any different direction, it could have landed right here,” he said. “That scares me a lot.”
The horror of the event soon turned into personal grief.
Roughly 30 minutes after witnessing the fireball, Wingo learned that one of his close friends had been on board — Wadsworth. He drove the motor coach of NASCAR reporter and former driver Kenny Wallace. He also was “beloved by many in the NASCAR community,” the families said in their statement.
In an 11-minute social media tribute to Biffle and the other victims, Wallace said Wadsworth was like family.
Statesville plane crash victim was ‘pillar of the community’
“It hasn’t really hit me yet,” Wingo said of the loss. “I watched it happen, and I didn’t know who was on it until later. In my mind, I’m thinking, ‘I watched my friend die.’ ”
Wadsworth, who spent years working with Greg Biffle and the NASCAR world, was a pillar of the community, according to Wingo.
“He’d give you the shirt off his back,” Wingo said. “Great person. Craig was one of the best.”
First flames, then smoke in Biffle crash
Other neighbors who lived near the airport also described what they saw and heard.
James Jones was inside his home on Airport Road when the silence was shattered by the sound of emergency sirens.
“At first it was just a flame, then black smoke,” Jones said, recalling the moment he looked outside to see the blaze. “I thought it was a house because there are residences on that side, too.”
He was stunned to realize the smoke was rising not from a neighbor’s home, but from a downed aircraft just a short distance from his property.
The proximity of the tragedy unsettled those nearby. The Lake Norman area is popular with both NASCAR teams and drivers.
Alex Etman, who lives directly across from the airport, was at work when he first heard the news.
“We are pretty close,” Etman said. “It’s definitely spooky to be this near to something like that. We obviously get a lot of plane traffic after the NASCAR races when the teams are coming home. Everything always felt normal.”
This story was originally published December 18, 2025 at 6:56 PM with the headline "‘I watched my friend die.’ What a witness saw in the Greg Biffle plane crash."
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