Craig Wadsworth's Estate Sues Biffle and Dutton Estates Over Unqualified Co-Pilot in Statesville Cessna 550 Crash
Why It MattersLitigation over Part 91 flights flown by owners or friends is turning crew qualification and who bears the cost of a professional second pilot into a central question of liability.
What happened
The estate of Craig Wadsworth, personal assistant and longtime friend of NASCAR driver Greg Biffle, filed a wrongful-death lawsuit on Friday, Oct. 16, in Iredell County, North Carolina. The suit names the estates of Greg Biffle and pilot Dennis Dutton, Dutton's 20-year-old son Jack Dutton, and GB Aviation Leasing LLC, a Biffle-owned company that operated the Cessna 550 and leased its hangar space. Wadsworth was one of seven people killed on Dec. 18, 2025, when the jet went down short of runway 28 at Statesville Regional Airport.
According to the complaint, Biffle and Dennis Dutton knew a qualified second pilot was required but allowed Jack Dutton to fly anyway. The suit says Biffle was motivated "at least in part, by the desire to avoid the expense" of a professional co-pilot, and cites a conversation in which Dennis Dutton allegedly told Biffle he had found a co-pilot who would be "cheap." It accuses Biffle of willful negligence for putting cost savings, convenience and cockpit experience for "an inexperienced airman" ahead of grounding the flight.
The NTSB's preliminary report (WPR26MA063) shows Dennis Dutton's CE-500 type rating carried the limitation "CE-500 Second in Command Required." Jack Dutton held a private pilot certificate with single-engine land and instrument ratings and about 175 total hours as of late November 2025, and the report states he was not qualified to act as second in command under 14 CFR 61.55. The NTSB has not issued a probable cause. It lists the trip as a Part 91 personal flight, filed IFR to Sarasota/Bradenton, and notes the operator held no operating certificate, which a personal flight does not require.
The Wadsworth suit is the first to accuse both families at once. The estates of Dennis and Jack Dutton filed wrongful-death suits in April 2026, each seeking $15 million from the Biffle estate. In May, Nicole Biffle, Greg Biffle's ex-wife, sued over the death of their 14-year-old daughter Emma, seeking $10 million. WBTV puts the claims against the Biffle estate at $40 million across four suits. All claims are allegations, and WBTV's report included no response from the estates. The NTSB final report has no release date.
Industry impact & what to watch
Part 91 personal flying carries no operating-certificate oversight, so crew qualification rests on the aircraft owner and the pilots themselves. A type-rating limitation requiring a second in command is one of the few hard constraints in that setting, and this complaint is built around it: the pleading ties a cost-saving motive to a known qualification gap. Suits like this show how plaintiffs frame an owner's choice of crew as a matter of negligence even when no regulator certifies the operation.
The structure of the litigation also matters. Four suits against the Biffle estate, plus claims now reaching the Dutton side, mean liability for a single accident is being contested across the owner, the pilot-in-command, the second pilot and the company that held the aircraft and hangar. For owners who lend or share aircraft with friends and family, the allegation that a professional co-pilot was skipped to save money is the kind of fact that drives exposure, and insurers and flight departments tend to read such cases when setting crew requirements.
Nothing in the complaint is proven. The NTSB has issued only a preliminary report and no probable cause, and its final report has no release date; that finding, along with any responses from the estates, will determine how much of the pleading holds up.
