February 12, 2024
The Minister of Aviation and Aerospace, Festus Keyamo, has said that the Nigerian Safety Investigation Bureau (NSIB) has offered its full cooperation to the National Transportation Safety Board (NTSB) in the investigation of the tragic Airbus Helicopter EC130B4 crash that led to the death of Group Chief Executive Officer (CEO) of Access Holdings, Herbert Wigwe and five others.
NSIB is the multimodal transport agency in Nigeria responsible for promoting transport safety and conducting objective and thorough investigations into transport accidents while the NTSB is the counterpart agency in the United States charged with fulfilling the same function as the NSIB.
SaharaReporters on Saturday reported that a chopper transporting Wigwe crashed on Friday and killed him as well as about five others in California, United States of America.
Sources said the chopper was headed to Las Vegas when it crashed near a border city between Nevada and California on Friday night.
Officials had said the helicopter crashed near Nipton on the edge of the Mojave Desert late on Friday evening.
The helicopter, a Eurocopter EC 130, had been carrying six people onboard at the time of the incident.
The minister said that the NTSB via its post on X after the incident stated that it had dispatched its “Go Team” to investigate the accident.
A board member of the National Transportation Safety Board, Michael Graham, during a news conference on Saturday said that the ill-fated helicopter, operated by Orbic Air, LLC as a Part 135 charter flight, departed from Palm Springs, California, at 8:45 p.m. PST, en route to Boulder City, Nevada.
The minister in the statement signed by the Director, Public Affairs and Consumer Protection, NSIB, Bimbo Oladeji, “Regrettably, the United States authorities have now confirmed that everyone onboard the aircraft lost their lives in the crash.
“The deceased are two crew members comprising a pilot in command and a “safety pilot” and four passengers namely Dr Herbert Wigwe, his wife, son, and Mr Abimbola Ogunbanjo, former Group Chairman of the Nigerian Exchange Group Plc, (NGX Group),
“In the aftermath of the accident, the Director General of the Nigerian Safety Investigation Bureau, Captain Alex Badeh established contact with NTSB, in accordance with Chapter 5 subsection 27 of ICAO’s Annex 13 to the Convention on International Civil Aviation – Aircraft Accident and Incident Investigation, which grants a State (nation) special interest in an accident involving its citizens.
“A State which has a special interest in an accident by virtue of fatalities or serious injuries to its citizens shall be entitled to appoint an expert who shall be entitled to: visit the scene of the accident; have access to the relevant information which is approved for public release by the State conducting the investigation, and information on the progress of the investigation; and receive a copy of the Final Report.
- Agency report
