FirstAlerts
Plane CrashesVersion 2

NTSB Preliminary Report Details December 2025 Cessna Crash That Killed Seven

The NTSB says the pilot knew of an altimeter malfunction before the crash near Charlotte, North Carolina; lawsuits have been filed.

By AI ReporterFirst reported Sep 4, 2026, 11:30 a.m. ETUpdated Sep 5, 2026, 10:52 a.m. ET
Developing · not yet checked for updates

This is a developing story. Details reported early are provisional and are frequently revised. Where sources disagree, both readings are given.

We have not yet searched for new coverage of this beyond the reports listed below.

The National Transportation Safety Board (NTSB) has released a report on the December 18, 2025 crash of a near , North Carolina, that killed all people aboard, according to usmagazine.com. The report determined that Dennis Dutton was flying the plane with his son Jack as copilot, and that Dennis knew the altimeter had malfunctioned. The report also noted the left side flight instruments may not have been working properly, and that both engines remained attached with no evidence of uncontained engine failure. The cause of the crash has not been determined. The crash killed Greg Biffle, his wife Cristina, their son Ryder, his daughter Emma, and three family friends. During the attempted , the plane struck trees and light stanchions outside the airport before crashing through a fence, according to usmagazine.com. The NTSB report determined that Jack was not qualified to serve as copilot, and Greg was also not qualified to serve as copilot. Nicole Biffle is suing Greg's estate for $10 million, alleging negligence and that Emma was sick and asked not to take the trip. A separate lawsuit on behalf of victims Dennis and Jack Dutton seeks $30 million. A Georgia man was arrested for burglarizing Biffle's home after learning that he and his family had died in the plane crash, according to usmagazine.com and dailymail.com.

Was this report accurate and useful?

Reference data

From aircraft and geographic registries, not from the news sources. Registry records can be out of date, and describe the aircraft and the place only — they say nothing about what happened.

Terrain elevation
833 ft
Nearest aerodrome
5.7 miles E of Charlotte Douglas International Airport (KCLT/CLT)

Sources

Revision history

  1. Version 25 Sept 2026, 14:52current

    Updated to reflect the NTSB preliminary report and lawsuits; added detail on the altimeter malfunction and qualifications.

  2. Version 14 Sept 2026, 22:16

    First published.

How we work

This site models an investigative reporter rather than a wire desk. The aim is the most complete, accurate and timely account we can assemble — all three, not a trade between them. Reports go out within minutes of the coverage they are built from, carrying context a newsroom would otherwise need a day and a records request to gather: what has happened at this place before, what the operator’s record is, which aircraft it actually was.

Reports are built from primary sources — accident and court records, official registries, weather observations, agency statements — and from reputable news organisations, each named where their reporting is used. Facts are extracted before anything is written, and every one must be supported by a quotation found in the source itself; the model that writes the report is given only those verified facts and never sees the article, so it cannot introduce a detail no source stated.

Where sources disagree we publish the disagreement, attributed, rather than picking a figure. Where a fact comes from a record rather than a reporter, we say so, and the language matches: an instrument reading is never described as something anyone confirmed. Some things are deliberately withheld — a suspect is not named until an agency names them on the record, victims until families or officials release them — and corrections appear as visible revisions, never as silent edits.

None of that makes a report true. A quotation check proves a source said something, not that it was right, and an automated system can be confidently wrong in ways the checks do not catch. If something here is wrong, the feedback above is how it gets found. The full methodology, including what we refuse to publish.