A business jet has crashed at a North Carolina airport, erupting into flames and killing multiple people, authorities have said.

The plane was linked to former NASCAR driver Greg Biffle, officials added.

Flight records show the aircraft was registered to a company run by Biffle.

The Cessna C550 business jet had taken off from Statesville Regional Airport, around 45 miles north of Charlotte, shortly after 10am local time (3pm UK time) on Thursday, bound for Florida.

It then returned and was attempting to land, according to flight tracking data.

Iredell County Sheriff Darren Campbell said: “I can confirm there were fatalities.” He did not share any further details.

The Federal Aviation Authority said six people were aboard the plane.

Footage from WSOC-TV showed emergency workers rushing on to the runway as flames burned near the wreckage.

Airport director John Ferguson said: “The airport now is closed until further notice. It will take some time to get the debris off the runway.”

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The airport’s website says it offers corporate aviation facilities for Fortune 500 companies and several NASCAR teams.

The Federal Aviation Administration said the National Transportation Safety Board will lead the investigation into the crash.

The anticipation had been that it would be a speech of significance.

The White House had announced two days earlier that the president was to deliver an evening address to the nation.

Traditionally the 9pm slot, interrupting the prime-time schedule on all the networks, is reserved for big news – usually international in nature.

Speculation had grown through the day that he may use the speech to address the prospect of US military action in Venezuela.

Read more: Trump has told us why he’s going after Venezuela

Instead, Trump took the big audience moment to make what was essentially a campaign speech but delivered at speed and combative in tone.

He blamed former president Joe Biden for the economy he inherited, on the “brink of ruin”, adding that he is “bringing those high prices down and bringing them down very fast”.

Speaking from the White House Diplomatic Reception Room, he said: “Our country is back, stronger than ever before. We’re poised for an economic boom the likes of which the nation has never seen.

“It’s not done yet, but boy are we making progress, nobody can believe what’s going on.”

He was speaking against an increasingly challenging backdrop politically and economically.

Petrol prices are down, but the broad cost of living continues to rise, and people do not seem to be feeling the economic boom he claims to be unleashing.

The unemployment rate rose to 4.6% in November, the highest it’s been for five years.

The only real announcement in his speech was a bonus for members of the military.

He said that the government would send cheques of $1,776 to all service members. The idea, he said, had only been finalised “about 30 minutes ago”, and the cheques were already in the post.

A fascinating speech – in tone if not substance

It was a very notable presidential address, not for what he announced because there was no big reveal. It was the tone which fascinated me.

The 9pm live address was his framing of his greatest hits from the past year, but delivered by an angry and frustrated man.

“Why are my polling numbers not better?” was the vibe he gave off.

“Why is the economy not doing better? Why are you – the voters – not feeling better off?”

Not actual quotes, but the clear subtext.

Read more: White House plaques attack ex-presidents

It is his low polling, rising unemployment, the cost of living and inflation challenges which prompted this address.

Had he come out and, off script, with empathy, said – “look, I get it… it’s taking time for you to feel my economic success….” – if he’d said all that with meaning, I think that would have landed in a more sympathetic way.

Instead – reading, unusually, off a script, he came across as a very frustrated president and extremely defensive.

Here’s the worry for Team Trump. So often out and about with voters, I hear people say: “Oh I don’t really like his style, his language, his divisiveness. But he’s a businessman. He knows how to run the country and the economy.”

If he loses those people, he’s in real trouble. That’s especially true when combined with suggestions he is losing some in his base too – just listen to his fan-turned-foe, MAGA stalwart, Marjorie Taylor Green.

One last thought. There are observers who think Trump is kind of unhinged; losing his marbles a bit. The slightly strange tone of this speech will be evidence for them, for sure.

Donald Trump’s administration has installed new plaques beneath portraits of former presidents attacking his predecessors in the US president’s typical fashion.

Among the plaques, apparently written by Mr Trump himself, is one for Joe Biden reading: “Sleepy Joe Biden was, by far, the worst president in American history.”

The “Presidential Walk of Fame” at the White House features a picture or painting of every former US president – except Mr Biden, who has been replaced by a photo of an autopen.

Mr Trump has repeatedly claimed Mr Biden was not mentally capable by the end of his term as president and his staff made decisions on his behalf, using an autopen to sign them off without his knowledge.

The device reproduces a person’s signature, allowing them to repeatedly sign documents without having to do so by hand each time.

The damning decoration goes on to falsely accuse Mr Biden of winning the “most corrupt election ever” and claims he made “unprecedented use of the autopen.”

Another plaque refers to “Barack Hussein Obama” as “one of the most divisive political figures in American history.”

The plaque underneath Bill Clinton’s photo reads: “In 2016, president Clinton’s wife, Hillary Clinton, lost the presidency to President Donald J Trump!”

Even George W Bush, a fellow Republican – though not a Trump supporter – is given a badge of rebuke, with his plaque saying the former president “started wars in Afghanistan and Iraq, both of which should not have happened.”

The “Presidential Walk of Fame” is a recent addition to Mr Trump’s White House and displays the portraits along corridors between the Oval Office and the South Lawn.

The White House press secretary, Karoline Leavitt, said the plaques were an “eloquent” description of each president’s legacy.

“As a student of history, many were written directly by the president himself,” she said.

It is the latest change to Mr Trump’s White House, which has seen the increased use of gold-coloured accents and gilded fixtures that mimic the decorations in Trump Tower in New York and his Mar-a-Lago estate in Florida.