The Greg Biffle tragedy recalls several air disasters that have hit the world

Tragedy struck the world of NASCAR Thursday when a plane carrying former racing star Greg Biffle, his family members and others crashed in North Carolina.

The plane was returning to Statesville Regional Airport about 10 minutes after takeoff for an “emergency landing.” Biffle, 55, was killed alongside his wife, Cristina, and children Ryder, 5, and Emma, ​​14. Three other people killed on board were identified as Dennis Dutton, his son Jack and Craig Wadsworth.

The National Transportation Safety Board (NTSB) was still investigating the cause of the accident.

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This deadly air incident is the latest to hit the world of sport.

American figure skaters

German finalists in the pairs Mandy Wotzel (L) and Ingo Steuer (2nd L) with winners Evgenia Shishkova (front right) and Vadim Naumov greet fans during the NHK Trophy figure skating grand prize award ceremony in Nagoya, central Japan. (Reuters)

The U.S. figure skating community was hit hard in January 2025 when a U.S. Army helicopter collided with an American Airlines plane over the Potomac River. Six figure skaters associated with the Skating Club of Boston died in the accident, including Jinna Han and Spencer Lane, two coaches, Vadim Naumov and Evgenia Shishkova, as well as Jinna’s mother Jin Han and Spencer Lane’s mother Christine Lane.

Alan Kulwicki

Alan Kulwicki died in a plane crash in 1993. (ISC Archives/CQ-Roll Call Group via Getty Images)

Alan Kulwicki was a rising star in NASCAR. He won Rookie of the Year in 1986 and four years later won the Drivers’ Championship from Bill Elliott. In April 1993, Kulwicki, two Hooters executives and the pilot of the jet they were in crashed while approaching landing in Tennessee. The NTSB said the pilot failed to clear ice from the engine inlet.

Davey Allison

Davey Allison won the trophy after winning a race at Daytona International Speedway on February 16, 1992. (George Tiedemann/Sports Illustrated via Getty Images)

Davey Allison, the son of legendary NASCAR driver Bobby Allison, was a rising NASCAR star when the helicopter he was piloting crashed in the infield of Talladega Superspeedway in Alabama. The accident occurred in July 1993, just months after Kulwicki’s death. The NTSB blamed the accident on Allison’s inexperience as a pilot.

Trump remembers ex-Nascar Greg Biffle as a ‘great young man’ after fatal plane crash

Payne Stewart

American Payne Stewart checks the line of his putt during the US Open at Hazeltine National Golf Club in Minneapolis, Minnesota, in 1991. (David Cannon/Allsport)

Payne Stewart was an 11-time winner on the PGA Tour, winning the US Open twice and the PGA Championship once during his golfing career. He died in 1999 when his private plane’s cabin pressure lost, killing all four passengers and two pilots. The plane continued on autopilot until it ran out of fuel and crashed in a South Dakota field.

Roberto Clemente

Roberto Clemente of the Pittsburgh Pirates before the opening game of the National League playoffs, October 7, 1971. (Getty Images)

Roberto Clemente played 18 years in the majors for the Pittsburgh Pirates and won two World Series championships. But it was his humanitarian efforts that took him from a formidable player to an all-time great. He was bringing emergency supplies to earthquake survivors in Nicaragua when the overloaded plane crashed on takeoff from Puerto Rico on New Year’s Eve 1972.

GREG BIFFLE’S WIFE SENT A WORRYING TEXT MESSAGE BEFORE PLANE CRASHED

Marshall Thundering Herd Football

Five rescue workers search the wreckage of a crashed plane in Huntington, West Virginia. The plane was carrying the entire Marshall University football team and all passengers were killed. (Getty Images)

Nearly 40 members of the Marshall Thundering Herd football team were among the 75 killed when Southern Airways Flight 932 crashed into a hillside in West Virginia in 1970. Five coaches, seven staff members and 21 boosters were also on board as the team returned home after a game against East Carolina.

Thurman Munson

New York Yankees star catcher Thurman Munson was killed on August 2, 1979, when his private plane crashed near Canton, Ohio. (Getty Images)

Thurman Munson was poised to become the next great catcher for the New York Yankees. He won the American League Rookie of the Year in 1970 and the MVP in 1976. He was named the team’s first captain since Lou Gehrig. He bought a plane so he could fly him home to Ohio on his days off. He was practicing landings when he clipped a tree on approach to Akron-Canton Regional Airport in 1979. Munson was paralyzed on impact and suffocated in the ensuing fire.

Kobe Bryant

In this June 7, 2009 file photo, Los Angeles Lakers guard Kobe Bryant (24) points at a player behind him after making a basket in the final seconds against the Orlando Magic in Game 2 of the NBA basketball finals in Los Angeles. (AP Photo/Mark J. Terrill, file)

January 2020 was one of the darkest and most unfathomable moments in sports. Kobe Bryant, his daughter and seven others were on a helicopter returning from a basketball tournament in California when the plane crashed near Los Angeles. The NTSB blamed the cause of the accident on the pilot.

Rocky Marciano

Rocky Marciano is victorious against Harry Matthews at Yankee Stadium. (New York Daily News Archive via Getty Images)

Rocky Marciano left the boxing world undefeated and champion when he decided to retire from the sport in 1956. He died in August 1969 when an inexperienced pilot crashed into a tree in bad weather three miles from an Iowa airfield.

Roy Halladay

Roy Halladay #34 of the Philadelphia Phillies delivers a pitch against the New York Mets on August 14, 2010 at Citi Field in the Flushing neighborhood of the Queens borough of New York. (Jim McIsaac/Getty Images)

Roy Halladay was one of baseball’s legendary pitchers, playing for the Toronto Blue Jays and the Philadelphia Phillies. He is one of the few pitchers to have a hit in the postseason. In 2019, Halladay crashed a sports plane he purchased in the Gulf of Mexico. The NTSB said he was impaired by high levels of amphetamines and was attempting extreme stunts when he lost control of the plane.

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Cory Lidle

Cory Lidle #30 of the New York Yankees is surrounded by his teammates in the bottom of the fifth inning against the Detroit Tigers in Game 4 of the 2006 American League Division Series on October 7, 2006 at Comerica Park in Detroit, Michigan. (Elsa/Getty Images)

New York Yankees pitcher Cory Lidle was killed in 2006 when the small plane he owned was blown by high winds into a New York residential building.