A business jet crash in North Carolina killed all seven people aboard Thursday, including a retired race car driver and his family, authorities and Nascar race officials said.

“There was a total of seven on board, all killed,” Iredell County Sheriff Darren Campbell told AFP.

The North Carolina State Highway Patrol said the plane had just taken off when it turned back to land before crashing.

The jet left from Statesville airport, north of the city of Charlotte.

Among those killed was retired NASCAR racing driver Greg Biffle, Nascar confirmed.

“The Nascar family is devastated at the loss of Greg Biffle, who was one of our 75 greatest drivers and became known for his relentless post-career humanitarian work. We extend our deepest condolences,” the race company said on X.

Among the fatalities were Biffle’s wife, Cristina Grossu Biffle, and their two children, according to Republican lawmaker Richard Hudson, a family friend who represents North Carolina in Congress.

“I am devastated by the loss of Greg, Cristina, and their children, and my heart is with all who loved them. They were friends who lived their lives focused on helping others,” Hudson posted on social media.

Weather may have played a role in the crash, according to local media, which reported adverse conditions at the time including drizzle and a low cloud ceiling.

The National Transportation Safety Board said it was launching a team to investigate the crash of the Cessna Citation C550.

“The team expects to arrive on scene tonight,” the agency said in a statement.

A UK government minister on Friday said an investigation was underway after Britain’s Foreign Office was hit by a data hack in October.

“I can confirm that there was a hack related to the Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office (FCDO),” Trade Minister Chris Bryant said, playing down a report suggesting Chinese hackers had been involved.

The data hack comes after it emerged in July that a Ministry of Defence official accidentally leaked a document containing the names and details of almost 19,000 Afghans who had asked to be relocated to the UK.

The details of more than 100 Britons, including spies and special forces personnel, were also released.

Bryant said the latest incident was “fairly low risk”.

“We’ve been investigating since October since this happened, and we closed down the problem,” Bryant told BBC radio.

The Sun daily said it understood a cyber gang named Storm-1849, accused of targeting critics of Beijing, was behind the Foreign Office hack.

Asked if he could rule out Chinese involvement, Bryant said he did not know.

A government spokesperson added: “We have been working to investigate a cyber incident. We take the security of our systems and data extremely seriously.”

Cyber gangs have previously targeted UK hospitals, the postal service, luxury brands and retailers.

• Noem says suspect entered via DV1 in 2017.
• USCIS ordered to pause programme immediately.
• Lottery awards up to 55,000 visas annually.

WASHINGTON: US homeland security chief Kristi Noem suspended a green card lottery on Thursday, saying it was used by the suspect in a mass shooting at Brown University.

Claudio Neves Valente, a 48-year-old Portuguese national, is accused of bursting into a building at the Ivy League school on December 13 and opening fire on students sitting exams, killing two and wounding nine.

He is also accused of killing a professor at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) two days later.

Noem wrote on social media that Neves Valente “entered the United States through the diversity lottery immigrant visa program (DV1) in 2017 and was granted a green card.”

“At President Trump’s direction, I am immediately directing USCIS (United States Citizenship and Immigration Services) to pause the DV1 program to ensure no more Americans are harmed by this disastrous program,” Noem wrote.

“This heinous individual should never have been allowed in our country.”

Neves Valente was found dead by suicide after a days-long manhunt, police said on Thursday evening.

The US green card lottery grants up to 55,000 permanent resident visas annually to people “from countries with low rates of immigration to the United States,” according to the State Department.

To qualify, applicants must have at least a high school education or two years of training or work experience.

They also go through a vetting process that includes an interview.

Trump administration also intends to increase its efforts to strip some naturalised Americans of their US citizenship, the New York Times reported on Wednesday, citing internal guidance.

The USCIS guidance, which was issued on Tuesday, asks its field offices to “supply Office of Immigration Litigation with 100-200 denaturalisation cases per month” in the upcoming 2026 fiscal year, according to the newspaper.

The guidance comes as Trump has spent much of this year closing loopholes in the immigration system and throwing up roadblocks for people seeking to enter and stay in the country.

US President Donald Trump has carried out an aggressive immigration agenda, including imposing travel bans and an attempt to end birthright citizenship since January.

His administration most recently paused immigration applications, including green card and US citizenship processing, filed by immigrants from 19 non-European countries.

— With additional input from Reuters