The National Transportation Safety Board (NTSB) has reported that the helicopter crash, which resulted in the de.ath of the former Group Chief Executive Officer of Access Holdings Plc, Herbert Wigwe, along with his wife, son, and other crew members over a year ago, was probably caused by “pilot disorientation” and deficiencies in safety protocols by the operating company
On 9 February 2024, an Airbus helicopter with registration number EC 130B4, crashed near Halloran Springs, California. The two pilots and four passengers, which included Mr Wigwe, his wife Doreen, their first son, Chizi; and the former group chairman of Nigerian Exchange Group Plc (NGX Group), Abimbola Ogunbanjo, were killed in the ill-fated aircraft.
The helicopter was operated by Orbic Air, LLC, as a Title 14 Code of Federal Regulations (CFR) Part 135 on-demand flight.
The NTSB, in its final aviation investigation report published on Tuesday, said the probable cause of the crash was the pilot’s decision to continue the flight under visual flight rules into instrument meteorological conditions (IMC).
“We determined the probable cause(s) 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 investigators said.
According to the 31-page report reviewed by this publication, the NTSB explained that contributing to the accident was the “company’s inadequate oversight of its safety management processes,” including ensuring the pilots were accurately completing and updating the flight risk analysis, logging maintenance discrepancies, and ensuring the helicopter met Part 135 regulations before departure.
The NTSB is an independent agency charged by the US Congress to investigate every civil aviation accident and significant accidents in other modes of transportation across the United States of America.
According to the NTSB, in the days preceding the helicopter accident last year, the helicopter had been undergoing routine maintenance that involved work on the radar altimeter, which was a required instrument for Part 135 flight operations.
“About 1727 on the day of the accident, the accident pilot and a company mechanic/pilot repositioned the helicopter from the maintenance facility to the company’s flight operations base, and during the flight, the accident pilot noted the radar altimeter was not functioning,” the report noted.
It said during the return flight, the pilot texted the director of maintenance (DOM) about the issue, and after arriving at the company’s flight operations base, the pilot discussed the issue with the company flight follower (who was also the company’s president).
“According to the flight follower, who also held operational control of the charter flight, during the discussions he told the pilot that the flight could not depart if the radar altimeter was not functioning,” the investigators’ report partly read.
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 has reported that the helicopter crash, which resulted in the de.ath of the former Group Chief Executive Officer of Access Holdings Plc, Herbert Wigwe, along with his wife, son, and other crew members over a year ago, was probably caused by “pilot disorientation” and deficiencies in safety protocols by the operating company){kind=link}