New 911 audio is offering a glimpse into the harrowing scene after Greg Biffle’s plane crashed in North Carolina last month, killing the NASCAR star, his wife, their two children and three others.
In audio of four separate 911 calls obtained by PEOPLE on Wednesday, Jan. 7, witnesses shared what happened in the moments after the Cessna Citation 550 crashed at Statesville Regional Airport on Thursday, Dec. 18.
The witnesses reported seeing heavy black smoke after the plane went down at the end of Runway 28 shortly after 10 a.m. that morning.
All seven people aboard the business jet registered to Biffle, 55, were killed in the crash, including the race car driver, his wife Cristina Grossu Biffle, 35, their five-year-old son Ryder and Greg’s 14-year-old daughter Emma.
Craig Wadsworth, 64 — a well-known figure in NASCAR circles who once drove former race car driver Kenny Wallace’s motorhome — was also aboard the plane, as was commercial airline pilot Dennis Dutton, 67, and his 20-year-old son Jack, who was studying aviation at Auburn University.
The plane left the regional airport, which does not have a control tower, en route to Sarasota, Fla., FlightAware data showed. It turned back minutes later, and was attempting to land at the time of the accident.
“We have a plane crash at the end of runway 28 and a big fire,” a woman calling from the airport said on one 911 call obtained by PEOPLE. “I do know there’s at least two pilots, at least, probably four passengers.”
She added, “There’s a lot of black smoke.”
Two other witnesses called from nearby golf courses to report the crash.
“I work here at the golf course, and I just watched them come over the fairway and crash,” one man can be heard saying on a 911 call.
Another man called 911 from Lakewood Golf Club, which sits just east of the airport.
“We just had a plane fly over our heads and crash into the treeline,” the man says. “We just had a huge explosion near the runway out here.”
He added, “Near hole one, it came from the tree line to our right, flew right over our heads and split the tree line by hole nine and went straight downwards, and a huge explosion. I don’t know if the guy’s okay.”
Another witness at the airport called in to report the crash as well.
“It looks like the plane’s down and burning,” he said. “Pretty good-size fireball.”
He added, “A lot of black smoke, whoever was on the plane probably did not make it, it’s a big fireball. It looks like it made it to the runway … fully engulfed small jet, private jet. There’s nobody alive. Yeah, there’s no way they could have survived it.”
The NTSB is currently investigating the cause of the crash, which happened while fog and heavy rain were present in the area, AccuWeather’s Dan DePodwin previously told PEOPLE in a statement.
In addition, at an initial press conference on Friday, Dec. 19, officials said they had not been able to determine who was flying the plane.