Wigwe’s death: US helicopter firm indicted

Wigwe

The United States of America’s National Transportation Safety Board has linked the unfortunate helicopter crash that killed the former Group Chief Executive Officer of Access Holdings Plc, Herbert Wigwe, alongside his family, to ‘pilot’s spatial disorientation.’

The NTSB report further indicted the helicopter company, accusing it of “inadequate oversight of its safety management processes.”

This was contained in the NTSB final report unraveling the reasons for the helicopter crash in February 2024.

A preliminary report earlier showed that the helicopter, registered as N130CZ, crashed while operating under visual flight rules in what ultimately became instrument meteorological conditions, requiring different flight protocols and instrumentation.

According to the report, investigators determined the “probable cause of this accident to be: The pilot’s decision to continue the visual flight rules flight into instrument meteorological conditions, which resulted in the pilot’s spatial disorientation and loss of control.”

The crash, which occurred near the California-Nevada border on February 9, 2024, claimed the lives of all six people on board, including Wigwe, his wife Doreen, their son Chizi, and Abimbola Ogunbanjo, former Group Chairman of Nigerian Exchange Group Plc.

The US accident investigators further reveal that the helicopter company failed to ensure pilots properly completed flight risk analyses, recorded maintenance issues, and followed required regulations before departure. Punch