• Cessna jet crashed during attempted return to airport

• No confirmation Biffle was aboard the aircraft

• FAA and NTSB responding to North Carolina crash

A business jet with six people aboard crashed Thursday at a regional airport in North Carolina used by Nascar teams and Fortune 500 companies, erupting in a large fire and killing multiple people, authorities said.

Flight records show the plane was registered to a company run by retired Nascar driver Greg Biffle.

There were six people on the Cessna C550 that crashed while landing at Statesville Regional Airport, about 45 miles (72km) north of Charlotte, the Federal Aviation Administration said.

“I can confirm there were fatalities,” Iredell county aheriff Darren Campbell said.

Golfers playing next to the airport were shocked as they witnessed the disaster, even dropping to the ground at the Lakewood Golf Club while the plane was overhead. The ninth hole was covered with debris.

“We were like, ‘Oh my gosh! That’s way too low,’” said Joshua Green of Mooresville. “It was scary.”

The National Transportation Safety Board and the FAA were investigating. AccuWeather says there was some drizzle and clouds at the time of the crash.

The plane took off from the airport shortly after 10am but then returned and was attempting to land there, according to tracking data posted by FlightAware.com.

The plane had planned to fly later from Sarasota, Florida, to Treasure Cay International Airport in the Bahamas before returning to Fort Lauderdale, Florida, and then to Statesville by evening, data showed.

Video from WSOC-TV showed first responders rushing onto the runway as flames burned near scattered wreckage from the plane. The airport’s website states that it offers corporate aviation facilities for Fortune 500 companies and several Nascar teams.

With 2025 almost over, there have been 1,331 US crashes this year investigated by the NTSB, from two-seat planes to commercial aircraft, compared to a total of 1,482 in 2024.

Major air disasters around the world in 2025 include the plane-helicopter collision that killed 67 in Washington, the Air India crash that killed 260 in India, and a crash in Russia’s Far East that claimed 48 lives. Fourteen people, including 11 on the ground, died in a UPS cargo plane crash in Kentucky.

Her first on-air hosting duties with Netflix will be early next year

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• Redshirt freshman has only appeared in blowouts so far

Olivier Rioux lumbered through the lane, caught a bounce pass from teammate CJ Ingram and dunked, sending Florida’s bench and the home crowd into a frenzy.

Rioux barely left his feet to make it happen.

Package includes medium-range missiles, howitzers and drones, and has drawn an angry response from China

• The maps that show how China’s military is squeezing Taiwan

The Trump administration has announced a massive package of arms sales to Taiwan valued at more than $10bn that includes medium-range missiles, howitzers and drones, drawing an angry response from China.

The state department announced the sales late on Wednesday during a nationally televised address by president Donald Trump, who made scant mention of foreign policy issues and did not speak about China or Taiwan at all. US-Chinese tensions have ebbed and flowed during Trump’s second term, largely over trade and tariffs but also over China’s increasing aggressiveness toward Taiwan, which Beijing has said must unify with the People’s Republic of China.