The newest lawsuit over the Statesville Citation crash rests partly on a conversation no participant survived. According to the complaint, pilot Dennis Dutton told Greg Biffle he had found a co-pilot for the flight and that the co-pilot would be “cheap.”
The estate of Craig Wadsworth, Biffle’s personal assistant and longtime friend, filed the wrongful-death suit Friday, Oct. 16, in Iredell County, WBTV reported. It names Biffle’s estate, the estate of Dennis Dutton, Dutton’s 20-year-old son Jack Dutton, and GB Aviation Leasing LLC, the Biffle company that operated the Cessna 550 and leased its hangar space. Backfire News has not reviewed the complaint itself. The details below come from WBTV’s account of it and from federal records.
Wadsworth was one of seven people killed on Dec. 18, 2025, when the jet went down short of runway 28 at Statesville Regional Airport, along with Biffle, his wife Cristina, his children Emma and Ryder, and both Duttons…