Cristina Biffle, the wife of NASCAR driver Greg Biffle, sent a haunting text to her mother before the fatal plane crash that took the lives of the couple and their two children.
The tragic accident occurred Thursday morning when the Cessna C500 that the family was traveling in crashed and burst into flames as it attempted to land at Statesville Regional Airport in North Carolina just before 10:30 a.m. ET.
Heartbreaking details reported by People suggested that Cristina knew something was wrong during the ill-fated flight. She texted her mom, Cathy Grossu, “We’re in trouble” just before the crash.
“She texted me from the plane and she said, ‘We’re in trouble.’ And that was it,” Grossu told the outlet after Greg, Cristina, 14-year-old daughter Emma and 5-year-old son Ryder all died in the crash.
“So we’re devastated. We’re brokenhearted.”
Terrifying video showed the Cessna engulfed in flames on the runway as first responders raced to the scene.
Craig Wadsworth, Dennis Dutton and Dutton’s son, Jack, were also identified as victims in the crash.
All of the victims were headed to Florida for a birthday trip, Grossu said.
The grief-stricken mother and grandmother called the entire situation “hard to bear” and said she couldn’t “believe they’re gone.”
Grossu told People that she couldn’t remember what the last words she said to her daughter, Greg or the kids were, but “they were happy.”
Greg was a semi-retired NASCAR driver and known for his humanitarian efforts, which made headlines when he flew into Western North Carolina after Hurricane Helene to help with the relief efforts.
“Beyond his racing career, he gave of himself for the betterment of our community. Most notably, Greg spent countless hours of his time helping the citizens of North Carolina during the disasters that followed Hurricane Helene,” NASCAR said as part of a statement.
Grossu noted that one of her last conversations with Cristina was about Santa letters that she would send to families in need.
“She said, ‘Mom, can you go pick up the last 17 letters that are at Staples? I want to get them in the mail before I get on the plane tomorrow,’” she told People. “So I ran over and got ’em and took them to their house, and when they got home last night, she put them in envelopes and finished them all up to get them off to those last 17 families to bring joy to them, and that would be the last thing that she would’ve done.”
Greg won 19 NASCAR Cup series races and was a one-time Busch series champion.
[Notigroup Newsroom in collaboration with other media outlets, with information from the following sources]
