NASCAR’s Greg Biffle and Other Celebrities Who’ve Died in Small Plane Crashes
Former NASCAR driver Greg Biffle has died at age 55.
Biffle was killed on Thursday when his private plane crashed in North Carolina. His wife, Cristina, also died in the accident, along with their son Ryder, 5, and Biffle’s daughter Emma, 14, whom he shared with his ex-wife Nicole Lunders. Dennis Dutton, his son Jack, and Craig Wadsworth were also among the crash victims, the Associated Press reports.
Sadly, Biffle is far from the first celebrity who has died in a small plane crash. From the recent tragedy involving country songwriter Brett James to the death of R&B star Aaliyah, here are some other other celebrities who’ve lost their lives in plane crashes.
Mike Stefanik
Biffle is not the first NASCAR driver to perish in a plane crash. In 2019, Mike Stefanik, a seven-time NASCAR Modified Tour champion, died in a small, single-seat plane crash in Connecticut. He was 61.
Brett James
‘Jesus, Take the Wheel’ songwriter Brett James died in September 2025, along with his wife Melody and her daughter Meryl, in a small plane crash in North Carolina.
“Some things are just unfathomable. The loss of Brett James to his family, friends and our music community is too great to put into words,” Carrie Underwood wrote on Instagram after his death.
Aaliyah
R&B singer Aaliyah was just 22 years old when she died in a plane crash in the Bahamas in 2001. Aaliyah was departing the islands after filming a music video when a chartered twin-engine Cessna 402B crashed shortly after takeout, killing her and eight other people. An investigation determined that the plane was overloaded; the pilot also had traces of cocaine and alcohol in his system, People noted.
Joe Lara
Joe Lara was an actor and model best known for starring in the short-lived 1990s TV series Tarzan: The Epic Adventures. Later, he reinvented himself as a country music singer and wed Gwen Shamblin, the creator of the Weigh Down Workshop, a Christian weight-loss program, and the founder of the Remnant Fellowship Church.
The controversial church – which many dubbed a cult – was the subject of a 2021 HBO documentary, The Way Down. During the final stages of production on the docuseries, Lara, Shamblin, and five other passengers died in a March 2021 plane crash. An investigation later determined that Lara, who was piloting the Cessna C501, became disoriented in heavy clouds.
Buddy Holly, Ritchie Valens, and The Big Bopper
A devastating February 1959 accident claimed the lives of three early rock-n-roll stars. Buddy Holly, Ritchie Valens, and J.P. Richardson (aka The Big Bopper) all died when a Beechcraft Bonanza in which they were passengers crashed near Clear Lake, Iowa. The trio had decided to fly to their tour’s next destination in Minnesota because of miserable conditions on their tour bus. Holly chartered the plane; Richardson got a seat after swapping with Waylon Jennings, while Valens won his spot in a coin toss. The tragedy was later immortalized in Don McLean’s hit song “The Day the Music Died.”
Otis Redding
On December 10, 1967, soul singer Otis Redding and several members of his band, the Bar-Kays, were on their way to a performance in Madison, Wisconsin, when their plane crashed into the icy waters of Lake Monona. Redding and six other people were killed; one member of his band, Ben Cauley, survived. A few weeks later, Redding’s iconic song “(Sittin’ On) the Dock of the Bay” was released and became the first posthumous number one single in U.S. history.
Ronnie Van Zant
Members of the Southern rock band Lynryd Skynyrd experienced a devastating crash in 1977. Multiple people – including founding member Ronnie Van Zant – died when a Corvair CV-240 they’d chartered crashed in Louisiana after running out of fuel. The accident also killed guitarist Steve Gaines, backing vocalist Cassie Gaines, and three others. Twenty other people on the plane survived.
John F. Kennedy Jr.
The Kennedy family has seen more than its share of tragedies over the years, including the July 1999 plane crash that claimed the life of John F. Kennedy’s son John F. Kennedy Jr. The 38-year-old was killed when a small plane he was piloting crashed into the ocean near Martha’s Vineyard. His wife, Carolyn Bessette Kennedy, and her sister, Lauren Bessette, also died.
It was not the first time a plane crash killed a member of the Kennedy family. JFK Jr.’s uncle, Joseph P. Kennedy Jr., died in 1944 when a military plane he was piloting exploded. His aunt, Kathleen “Kick” Kennedy did in a plane crash in 1948 in France. His uncle Ted Kennedy narrowly survived a 1964 plane crash.
John Denver
Singer-songwriter John Denver died in 1997 at age 53 when his light, homebuilt aircraft crashed off the California coast. Denver, an experienced pilot, was the only person on the plane. An investigation found that the aircraft had an unusually placed fuel selector valve, making it difficult for the pilot to switch fuel tanks. Denver had to turn in his seat to switch tanks, which caused him to lose control of the plane, People reports.
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