Greg Biffle, his wife Cristina, daughter Emma, son Ryder, Craig Wadsworth and Dennis and Jack Dutton were killed on Thursday, Dec. 18, when their private jet crashed while re-approaching Statesville (North Carolina) Regional Airport after the pilot reported engine failure.
Shortly before the crash, Cristina texted her mother, “We’re in trouble.”
Former NASCAR Champion Benny Parsons discovered Biffle in the NASCAR Winter Heat Series at Tucson, Arizona. He called prominent team owners Rick Hendrick, Jack Roush and Richard Childress and told them they should hire him immediately. Roush put Biffle in one of his Craftsman Trucks without seeing him run a single lap.
I was very close to Benny, and that connected me to Greg. We shared personal information, and the three of us spent a lot of time together away from the racetrack. When Benny was diagnosed with cancer, Greg and I were at dinner, and I asked Greg if he’d talked to BP. He said he didn’t know what to say. I said, “Say, hey BP.”
I called, and Benny started the conversation by saying, “Let me guess, you and Greg are in the Range Steakhouse at Harrah’s.” He was right. Greg and Benny talked for 10 minutes. Benny died three months later, but Greg said he was grateful he got to say goodbye to his friend.
I talked to Greg last year following the devastating floods in Western North Carolina. Few understand the monstrous efforts Greg and his buddy Garrett Mitchell (most know him as influencer Cleetus McFarland) undertook flying supplies from the same airport where Greg died to affected areas. Greg was on his way to see Cleetus when he left Statesville on Thursday.
I wrote about my friend's heroic deeds a year ago. Here’s a reprint of that story:
Greg Biffle’s unexpected altruism started on Saturday, Sept. 28, (2024) with a text from a friend who wanted to know if he wanted to go flying later that day. He did not know that a single message would escalate into a rescue effort involving hundreds, likely saving thousands and gaining international acclaim.
A Facebook message came from a family trapped in an Airbnb in Western North Carolina due to massive flooding and devastation caused by the remnants of Hurricane Helene. The only way out was by helicopter, and Biffle had a helicopter.
“I had my boat behind a friend’s house, and it’s been there for three or four weeks,” he said. “I was supposed to go get it that day. When I got the text, I prepared my supplies to move the boat 30 miles north from Ft. Lauderdale to West Palm Beach. It was from a young couple who had young kids. They needed water, diapers, formula.
"You know, they had no power. I knew there were places without power. I knew there were places with damage, but I had no idea the extent of the damage. I decided I could delay my trip (to South Florida) for a day and help the family because if I don’t go, who will go? I had the opportunity. I was going to try.”
Biffle didn’t have power in his hangar near Charlotte, North Carolina. He used a tug and chains to pull the doors open, and he found a way to pump fuel to his helicopter manually, although the airport lacked power.
He got within nine miles of the stranded family but had to turn around.
“The clouds had me,” Biffle said. “I was locked down. I tried several routes but needed another 1,300-foot elevation over the next nine miles to make it. I just was unable to get there. I turned around and came back. I talked about it, and the most disappointing thing was, you know, coming back empty-handed.
“I decided I’d try again in the morning.”
A one-day delay turned into a two-day pledge, and two days suddenly became a weeklong obsession. A week then became two weeks. Soon, the world was waiting for updates on his social media pages. His determination became infectious. The first day after the storm, just two helicopters were flying into the storm-ravaged area. He posted on social media about his frustrating efforts on the first day of his flight home and his plans to return on Sunday. When he landed, he had several thousand text messages and responses on his social media platforms.
Suddenly, the relief effort had a familiar face leading the charge. Everyone wanted to help.
“I didn’t have service in the air, but when I landed, my phone blew up with messages,” he said. “When I was flying up there, I was showing the damage: the washed-out roads, the power lines down and houses washed away. We didn’t go over a lot of the areas. We cut in from Statesville, not over the more populated areas. When this was happening, other people saw it.
“I had no idea the scale of what was about to happen because it was underreported. It wasn’t in the news. At least, I hadn’t seen it.”
Fox News and The Weather Channel picked up some of his posts, including him flying over a valley and seeing a brief flash in the corner of his eye. A woman used the vanity mirror in her bathroom to signal for help. She didn’t have power, and her husband desperately needed insulin. Biffle finally found a place to land and was able to leave insulin, food, water, an EpiPen and other supplies. He also promised to return a few days later with more help.
On the first day after the storm, Biffle flew one of two helicopters (Cleetus McFarland was in the other) that tried to help victims. Then, he sent out a video of his ride home that changed everything.
On Day 2, there were eight helicopters. A week into the rescue effort, as many as 80 helicopters and nearly 100 fixed-wing airplanes were flying supplies to Western North Carolina. The relief included truckloads of supplies collected at the Charlotte and Bristol Motor Speedways, and private donations were expanded to Hickory, Statesville, Morganton, and North Carolina airports.
Biffle leveraged his NASCAR connections with former sponsors and companies. The driver who won 19 NASCAR Cup Series, 20 Xfinity and 17 Truck Series races in 20 full-time seasons got 500 SpaceX Starlink internet links, along with pallets of generators from Polaris, and tankers filled with fuel and flatbeds with fuel containers, baby formula, diapers, bar oil, two-stroke oil and chain oil.
For 15 days, “We burned fuel (in the helicopters) from sunrise to sunset,” Biffle said.
Helene wasn’t the first time Biffle responded to people in need. Following Hurricane Irma, he drove his pickup truck to South Florida, stopping at home supply stores to buy generators and gas cans before filling them with gasoline to hand out to people in need. He also stopped on the interstate to pump gasoline in cars stranded on the shoulders.
“I did it because I can,” he said.
And like Irma, Biffle was only concerned with helping, not headlines.
“Listen, what’s happening (with the rescue efforts) in Western Carolina isn’t just me,” he said.
But is he responsible for much of the private community’s response and support?
“I certainly didn’t do this all myself,” he said. “Maybe we brought the attention and sounded the horn. If so, that’s a good thing. I know that on Day 2, we had a few helicopters in Statesville and a few people. On Day 3, we had about eight helicopters and 15 to 18 people. The next day, about 35 helicopters and a line of cars to drop off stuff was a mile long. And this went on for 24 hours.”
Because he was so involved in the relief effort, Biffle wasn’t aware of the attention he and his fly buddies had attracted. The Carolina Hurricanes invited Biffle to their home opener on Oct. 11 in Raliegh, North Carolina, to crank the warning sounder as the team hit the ice before the game.
NASCAR then invited Biffle to serve as its Honorary Starter for the Bank of America ROVAL 400 at the Charlotte Motor Speedway on Oct. 13. He was introduced during the driver’s meeting, followed by a standing ovation by fellow drivers, crew chiefs, car owners and dignitaries, including vice presidential candidate J.D. Vance.
“I did not expect that,” Biffle said. “My eyes were watering.”
Fans treated him like a conquering hero, although he was an unassuming pillar of hope in the most desperate times, as he worked through the crowded grandstands to the starter’s tower to wave the green flag.
There is so much that still haunts Biffle. He remembers rescuers finding a person who was barely alive less than 100 feet from his helicopter in the brush who had been there for days. He wondered how many more were lost in the thicket that wouldn’t be found in time. He thinks about sitting at his kitchen table sipping coffee, waiting for the morning fog to lift, knowing thousands won’t have power or a hot cup of coffee for months.
The memory of destruction, desperation and death will never go away.
He refused to be overwhelmed, but he admitted to being exhausted.
“My hands, my forearms, from all the controls for that many hours flying in conditions that I’m not used to flying in,” he said. “You know, I followed all the same protocols and used all my training, but I’m telling you, I just wasn’t prepared to fly in the mountains.”
He took a break on Monday to finally move his boat – 16 days later than originally planned. He said he would return to Western Carolina before traveling to the western U.S. for a scheduled function later this month.
He will always think about the future of the hundreds of people he’s met – and the hundreds more who will be able to sustain a meager semblance of survival after receiving basic humanitarian supplies.
“I feel like I should be doing something else,” Biffle said. “That’s what kept me going. That’s what fueled the fire. It didn’t matter where you went. People needed help. Your mind starts to think about things. Some people lost everything. Where are they going to work? How are they going to live?
“Our work isn’t done yet.”
