The National Transportation Safety Board has started its investigation into the aviation incident that killed Greg Biffle, his family and three others on Thursday morning at Statesville Regional Airport.
While a preliminary report will be released within 30 days, a full investigation will take 12 to 18 months before the publishing of a final report.
NTSB Member Michael Graham conducted a press conference on Friday afternoon where they detailed what the process will look like over the next calendar year. He was joined by Investigator-In-Charge Dan Baker.
Together, they explained that the early stages will include witness interviews and the gathering of all pertinent multimedia evidence of the incident.
The Cessna 550, owned by the former NASCAR Cup Series star, crashed at 10: 15 a.m., just 10 minutes after takeoff, on the approach end of Runway 28. The crash killed Biffle, wife Cristina Grossu Biffle, daughter Emma (from first wife Nicole Lunders) and son Ryder.
Also on board was long-time NASCAR everyman Craig Wadsworth, who long worked with Biffle, and Dennis and Jack Dutton.
The crash produced an 1800’ debris field and the cockpit voice recorder is going back to Washington, DC for analysis.
“It’s fairly long so it’s scattered wide and out so it’s going to take some time to document all that,” Graham said. “We were unable to get our drone launched today with the high winds but we want to get that digitally documented with the drone tomorrow so hopefully we can get a better idea of how wide and how much debris is out there.”
Graham also said the NTSB is not