“If I were in charge, I certainly would have said ‘NO, THANK YOU,’ ” aviation safety consultant and retired Marine Corps Col. Pete Field told The Associated Press on Wednesday.




LOS ANGELES — Two aviation experts who reviewed newly released photos and video of Friday's helicopter crash that killed a prominent Nigerian banker and five others said the flight likely should have been CANCELLED because of poor nighttime weather conditions in Southern California’s Mojave Desert.

The National Transportation Safety Board released photos and video of the mangled wreckage this week as its investigators continue to look into what caused the crash. The agency’s preliminary investigation report will be released in the coming weeks.

Weather reports from the time show a mix of rain and snow, and the aircraft flew over a remote area of the desert that likely would have had few lights for the pilot to navigate by, other than cars’ headlights and taillights along the interstate.

Herbert Wigwe, chief executive of Access Bank, and his wife and 29-year-old son were among those aboard the helicopter when it crashed shortly after 10 p.m. near Interstate 15. Bamofin Abimbola Ogunbanjo, former chair of the Nigerian stock exchange, was also killed. Their deaths shocked many in Nigeria and in the banking sector.

Officials said the pilots — Benjamin Pettingill, 25, and Blake Hansen, 22 — also died in the crash. A member of Hansen’s family said they were grieving Wednesday and declined to comment.

The helicopter left Palm Springs Airport around 8:45 p.m. on Friday and was traveling to Boulder City, Nevada, Graham said. Boulder City is about 26 miles (40 kilometers) southeast of Las Vegas, where the Kansas City Chiefs beat the San Francisco 49ers in Super Bowl 58 on Sunday. Wigwe’s destination after the plane landed has not been confirmed.

The charter company, Orbic Air LLC, declined to comment Wednesday.

Flight-tracking data shows the helicopter was following the interstate until it made a slight right turn, turning south of the roadway, according to the NTSB. The data then shows a gradual descent and increasing ground speed.

The wreckage site, with a debris field about 100 yards (91.44 meters) long, shows that helicopter hit the ground with its nose low at a right-bank angle, the NTSB said. Witnesses reported a fire on the helicopter, as well as downed power lines, the NTSB said.

Clipping the power lines, which may have been hard for the pilot to see in the dark, could have caused the crash, said Al Diehl, a former NTSB investigator.

“In a matter of seconds, you can get disoriented,” he said.

Authorities have said there was a pilot and a safety pilot, but not who was serving in which role. Both were licensed as commercial helicopter pilots as well as flight instructors. The Airbus EC-130 only has controls for a single pilot.

The crash came just three days after a U.S. Marine Corps helicopter went down in the mountains outside San Diego during historic downpours, killing five Marines.

“It’s been a couple of terrible weeks for helicopters in Southern California,” Diehl said.

___
Associated Press researcher Rhonda Shafner in New York contributed.

Source: https://www.washingtonpost.com/national/2024/02/14/helicopter-crash-california-nigerian-banker-wigwe/723c3924-cb97-11ee-aa8e-1e5794a4b2d6_story.html

This CERTAINLY puts to rest all the irresponsible conspiracy theories surrounding the copter crash and the translation of the brilliant tecnocrats, Otunba Abimbola Ogunbadejo and Herbert Wigwe, his wife, and 29-year-old son and the two young pilots aged between 22 and 25 years. Herbert's Special Assistant Olusola Faleye whose name was on the flight manifest but escaped being on the copter due to the fact that all the luggage could NOT be put on board, definitely had nothing to do with the death of his boss in the copter crash as being wildly speculated online. He was detailed to move the luggage by road to the nearby Nevada instead.

The Erunwon Ijebu-born Bamofin Abimbola Ogunbanjo [1962-2024] and the Isiokpo Ikwere-born Herbert Wigwe [1966-2024] were some of the FINEST corporate executives out of Nigeria and they left footprints in the sands of time.

The Elerunwon of Erunwon-Ijebu in Council headed by Alaiyeluwa Oba Johnson Adebayo Adebola Okubena, conferred on Ogunbanjo the traditional title of Bamofin of Erunwon Ijebu Kingdom, meaning the “father of lawyers”, on 8 December 2018.

=>https://businessday.ng/news/article/who-is-abimbola-ogunbanjo/
=>https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Abimbola_Ogunbanjo


Herbert Wigwe too was building a world-class Uni called Wigwe University in his Isiokpo hometown in Rivers State as of the time of his passing.

=>https://businessday.ng/news/article/life-times-of-herbert-wigwe-in-68-rare-pictures/

if they were know, they will ve travel by road! 49mile just like Ibadan to ile ife

This life sha one second you're no more

muyico:
if they were know, they will ve travel by road! 49mile just like Ibadan to ile ife

Bigmanism

Just like the investigators said, that copter should NEVER have taken off that night due to inclement weather conditions, but to make matters worse, the copter clipped electric poles and rapidly descended before BURSTING into flames in the Mojave Desert in Southern California.

Exactly 3 days before that copter crash which claimed the lives of the former Nigerian Exchange Group [NGX Group] chairman, Abimbola Ogunbanjo and the Wigwes, a U.S. Marine helicopter had crashed in the same Southern California area due to poor weather conditions with 5 young U.S. Marine Corps pilots in their 20s on board. There were NO survivors.

=> https://apnews.com/article/marine-helicopter-crash-san-diego-miramar-california-storm-1fe8095eba1c61010a64b27e105d2b0c


LESSONS LEARNED: Do your due diligence with online and offline resources on aircraft brands. NEVER take off in a copter in bad weather situations especially at nighttime EXCEPT the copter (or even a plane) is equipped with advanced air navigation instruments that allow copters to take off and land in near-zero OR zero-visibility. Period.

muyico:
if they were know, they will ve travel by road! 49mile just like Ibadan to ile ife

Indeed, Herbert's Special Assistant, Olusola Faleye was fortunate that the copter was FULL and he had to take some of the luggage by road to the nearby state of Nevada. It was a very close shave with death because his name was on the flight manifest of those who were to fly on that copter.

I still get some occasional goosebumps just thinking about that close shave that Olusola Faleye had.