A final report by US air accident investigators has concluded that the helicopter crash which killed Nigerian banking executive Herbert Wigwe and three others was caused by the pilot continuing to fly visually in poor weather conditions.
The United States National Transportation Safety Board (NTSB) said the pilot’s decision to proceed under Visual Flight Rules (VFR), despite worsening weather, led the aircraft into conditions requiring instrument navigation — a situation known as Instrument Meteorological Conditions (IMC).
The helicopter, registered as N130CZ, crashed in February 2024 near the California-Nevada border. Among the victims were Mr Wigwe, who was the CEO of Access Holdings, his wife Doreen, their son Chizi, and former chairman of the Nigerian Exchange Group, Abimbola Ogunbanjo.
The NTSB report found that the pilot became spatially disoriented after flying into IMC and subsequently lost control of the aircraft.
Investigators also discovered that the helicopter’s radar altimeter — a critical navigation instrument — was not working prior to the fatal flight. The pilot had earlier messaged the company’s maintenance director about the malfunction, but the issue was not resolved.
“A company mechanic performed some troubleshooting on the radar altimeter; however, he was unable to rectify the issue, and the radar altimeter remained non-functional,” the report said.
Despite this, the pilot and director of maintenance went ahead with the positioning flight to collect the passengers, departing at 18:22 local time.
The NTSB also noted that after picking up the passengers, the pilot and the flight follower exchanged messages but did not discuss the faulty radar altimeter or deteriorating weather conditions.
