Plane Carrying Greg Biffle, His Family and 3 Others Is Engulfed in Flames in Harrowing New Video

New security footage shows the moment the plane carrying Greg Biffle, his family and three others burst into flames at a North Carolina airport on Thursday morning.

In the video, the Cessna C550 crashes and skids down the runway at Statesville Regional Airport on Thursday, Dec. 18, exploding into a fireball and leaving in its wake plumes of thick, black smoke.

All seven people aboard the business jet registered to Biffle, 55, were killed in the crash, including the NASCAR champion, his wife Cristina Grossu Biffle, 35, their five-year-old son Ryder, and Greg’s 14-year-old daughter Emma.

Craig Wadsworth, a well-known figure in NASCAR circles who once drove former race car driver Kenny Wallace’s motorhome, was also aboard the plane, as was Dennis Dutton and his son Jack.

Dennis Dutton is a commercial airline pilot, but it is unclear who was flying the plane at the time of the accident. 

Biffle received certification to fly a multi-engine plane in March of this year, according to NBC affiliate WCNC, but his license would not have allowed him to be the sole pilot.

Jack Dutton, who graduated from Hough High School in Cornelius, N.C. in 2024, was recently certified as a single-engine pilot, the station reported. Jack was a junior at Auburn University where he studied aviation, Cornelius Today reported.

A team of 16 NTSB investigators left Washington, D.C. for North Carolina late Thursday afternoon and will now piece together the plane’s last moments, the agency shared on X.

NTSB member Michael Graham is expected to hold a media briefing on the investigation on Friday, Dec. 19.

The plane left the regional airport, which does not have a control tower, shortly after 10 a.m. on Thursday morning en route to Sarasota, Fla., FlightAware data shows. It turned back minutes later, and was attempting to land at the time of the crash.

Fog and heavy rain were present in the area, AccuWeather’s Dan DePodwin told PEOPLE in a statement.

“Adverse weather conditions were reported in the vicinity of Statesville Regional Airport around the time of the plane crash,” DePodwin, AccuWeather vice president of forecasting operations, said. “Heavy drizzle and a cloud ceiling near 1,200 feet were reported at 10:15 a.m. The cloud ceiling had reportedly lowered to around 400 feet, with heavy rain reducing visibility to less than 2 miles at 10:30 a.m.”

Investigators have not yet determined if weather played a role in the accident.

In the final moments of the plane’s flight, Cristina Biffle sent a harrowing text, her mother told PEOPLE on Thursday.

"She texted me from the plane and she said, 'We're in trouble.' And that was it," Cathy Grossu recalled. "So we're devastated. We're brokenhearted."

The group was traveling to Florida for a "birthday trip," Cathy told PEOPLE.

Biffle would have turned 56 on Tuesday, Dec. 23.