Nascar’s Greg Biffle wasn’t flying his plane before crash that killed him and six others

• NTSB says no qualified copilot was on board jet

• Instrument failures reported before fatal crash

• Flight data shows erratic climb and descent

Retired Nascar driver Greg Biffle was not flying his own jet when it crashed last month, killing him and six others, according to a Friday report from federal safety officials who also concluded that while an experienced pilot was at the controls, no one else on board was qualified to be the required copilot.

The preliminary report from the National Transportation Safety Board said that Biffle and the retired airline pilot at the controls, Dennis Dutton, and his son Jack, who were all licensed pilots, noticed problems with gauges malfunctioning on the Cessna C550 before it crashed while trying to return to the Statesville Regional Airport in North Carolina.