NTSB investigators recover the cockpit voice recorder from the Cessna 550 that crashed at Statesville Regional Airport, Dec. 20, 2025. Photo: National Transportation Safety Board, public domain
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.
The suit alleges that Biffle and Dennis Dutton knew a qualified second pilot was required and let Jack Dutton fly anyway, with Biffle motivated “at least in part, by the desire to avoid the expense” of hiring a professional. It calls Biffle willfully negligent for putting cost savings, convenience and cockpit time for “an inexperienced airman” ahead of grounding the flight or finding someone qualified. WBTV’s report does not say how the plaintiffs learned of the “cheap” remark, whether through a witness, a text message or something else. How the plaintiffs know about that remark may be the most important fact in the complaint.
What the federal record says
On the narrow question of whether the right seat was legally filled, the suit has the government on its side. The NTSB’s preliminary report for investigation WPR26MA063 shows Dennis Dutton’s type rating for the CE-500 carried the limitation “CE-500 Second in Command Required.” Jack Dutton held a private pilot certificate with a single-engine land rating and an instrument rating, and about 175 total hours as of late November 2025. The report states he was not qualified to act as second in command under 14 CFR 61.55, which starts by requiring the category and class rating for the aircraft. A single-engine certificate does not cover a twin jet. We went through the rest of the certificate data when the Biffle estate moved to dismiss the Dutton suits in September.
What the report does not do is connect the crew’s paperwork to the outcome. The NTSB has not issued a probable cause. Its preliminary findings describe the captain’s flight instruments appearing to fail around 10:10 a.m., control passing to the right seat about a minute later, and Dennis Dutton taking it back before the approach. The cockpit voice recorder was an analog tape unit, and audio from both pilot seats was garbled or lost for minutes at a time during that stretch.
The charter certificate claim
The complaint also alleges GB Aviation held no air carrier certificate, which the FAA requires of a company running commercial charters. The NTSB agrees the operator held no operating certificate. It also lists the trip as a Part 91 personal flight, filed IFR to Sarasota/Bradenton, and a personal flight needs no such certificate. For that allegation to carry weight, the plaintiffs would have to show the trip was something other than personal. WBTV’s account does not say what the complaint argues on that point.
Why $25,000
The Wadsworth estate asks for “at least $25,000” plus costs and interest. That is not a valuation. North Carolina’s Rule 8(a)(2) bars negligence complaints over that amount from stating a dollar demand and requires them to say only that damages exceed $25,000.
The word “willful” may matter more than the number. Under N.C. Gen. Stat. 1D-15, willful or wanton conduct is one of three aggravating factors that open the door to punitive damages, and the plaintiff must prove it by clear and convincing evidence. WBTV’s report does not say whether the complaint seeks punitive damages.
WBTV totals the claims against the Biffle estate at $40 million across four suits but does not break the figure down. The spring filings account for it: WSOC reported in April that the Dennis and Jack Dutton estates each sought $15 million from the Biffle estate, and a Gray Television report in May put a suit on behalf of Emma Biffle at $10 million. That May report described the Emma Biffle suit as aimed at Dennis Dutton’s estate, not Biffle’s.
Suing both cockpits
Until now the cases split along family lines. The Dutton estates blame Biffle as owner for the jet’s maintenance. The Biffle estate answered that the Duttons were negligent in how they flew it. Dennis Dutton’s widow, Margaret Stephanie Dutton, went after GB Aviation and the estate’s administrator directly in July. We laid out the first round of filings in May.
Wadsworth’s is the first reported suit to accuse both families at once. It accuses the Duttons of negligence as pilot in command and acting crewmember, and Biffle of negligence both as Dennis Dutton’s boss and as owner of the company that approved the crew. The contributory-negligence defense the Biffle estate aimed at the men in the cockpit is a harder argument against a man who, as far as any record shows, rode in the cabin.
Every claim in these suits is an allegation. WBTV’s report includes no response from the Biffle or Dutton estates. Under North Carolina’s civil rules, defendants generally have 30 days after service to answer, and extensions are routine. The NTSB’s final report and probable cause, which would say whether the right-seat arrangement played any part in the crash, have no release date.
Who carries more of the blame: the owner who allegedly approved a “cheap” co-pilot, or the captain whose own type rating said he needed a qualified one?
Sources: NTSB preliminary report WPR26MA063; 14 CFR 61.55; N.C. R. Civ. P. 8(a)(2); N.C. Gen. Stat. 1D-15; WBTV reporting on the Oct. 16 complaint; WSOC and Gray Television reporting on the April and May filings.
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