NTSB releases preliminary report on Biffle plane crash

Greg Biffle was not flying the plane that took his life and that of six others when it crashed in Statesville, N.C., in December.

A preliminary report released by the NTSB revealed that Dennis Dutton was the primary pilot. It was determined by the cockpit voice recorder that “the airline transport rated pilot was seated in the left seat,” which would have been Dutton; his son Jack was in the right seat.

Per the report, Jack Dutton was not qualified to perform second-in-command duties. Dutton had 175.3 total flight hours in a single-engine airplane as of November.

Biffle, a certified private pilot, was determined to have been sitting in a rear seat near the cockpit.

A cause for the crash has not yet been released. The report detailed that the flight took off at approximately 10:06am and was headed for Sarasota, Fla. The group, which also included Biffle’s wife Cristina, daughter Emma, son Ryder, and Craig Wadsworth, was headed to meet with Cleetus McFarland.

The report lays out that “engine start was initiated using onboard battery power and, following an initial unsuccessful start of the left (No. 1) engine, both engines were started” at about 9:53am. During the taxi, Dutton, his son Jack and Biffle discussed “a thrust reverser indicator light(s) for an unspecified engine was inoperative, but that the thrust reverser for the affected engine was working properly.”

Biffle commented during takeoff roll that the left engine was producing more power than the right, but that it might have been a faulty gauge. The takeoff continued.

At 10:10am, Dutton remarked that his altitude indicator and left-side flight instruments were not working properly. He turned control of the airplane over to his son, Jack, for a period of time, and there were no recordings that indicated there were any malfunctions with instruments on the right side of the cockpit. Dutton resumed control of the airplane at some point; however, it was not recorded when.

Jack Dutton was recorded saying, “We’re having some issues here,” at around 10:13am. The airplane was attempting to return to Statesville when the crash occurred, approximately nine minutes after it had taken off.

It was also noted by the NTSB that about 31 minutes of audio were recorded on the cockpit voice recorder. Additionally, “audio quality of the recording was poor with low signal-to-noise ratio, and extraordinary means were required to make portions of the recording intelligible." The airline did not have a flight data recorder and was not required to.

A full report on the crash investigation is expected within the next 12 to 18 months.