Abuja, Nigeria:
The co-founder of Nigeria's largest bank died along with his wife and son in a helicopter crash in the United States, his company announced on Sunday.
Access Bank Group CEO Herbert Wigwe was killed on Friday when the plane crashed in California, Access Holdings said in a statement.
“Dr. Wigwe died along with his wife and son on Friday, February 9, 2024, in a helicopter accident in the United States,” the report said. “The entire Access family mourns the loss of Herbert, Doreen and Chizi.”
US authorities said two crew members and four passengers died in the crash. The head of the World Trade Organization said former president of the Nigeria Stock Exchange, Abimbola Ogunbanjo, was among the dead.
“On Friday, February 9, around 10:00 PM local time, a Eurocopter EC 130 helicopter crashed near Nipton, California. There were six people on board,” the US Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) said on its website, without naming the victims.
The FAA said there would be an investigation.
World Trade Organization Director-General Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala said on social media that she was “terribly saddened by the news of the terrible loss of Herbert Wigwe, Group CEO Access Bank, his wife and son, as well as Bimbo Ogunbanjo in a helicopter crash. ”
Nigerian Aviation Minister Festus Keyamo called the news “devastating”.
“I am also shocked to hear that his wife, son and other friends were involved in this tragedy,” he said.
According to Bloomberg, Access is Nigeria's largest bank by assets.
The bank praised Wigwe, who became deputy director in 2002, as a “key driving force and larger-than-life personality who brought his remarkable passion, energy and experience to the transformation of the Access franchise”.
Michael Graham, a member of the U.S. National Transportation Safety Board, told a news conference Saturday that the helicopter left Palm Springs, California, on Friday evening en route to Boulder City, Nevada.
About 90 minutes after the charter flight took off, the helicopter “struck the terrain south of I-15 near Halloran Springs, California,” about 75 miles (120 kilometers) northeast of the town of Barstow, Graham told reporters.
“Two crew members and four passengers were on board and were fatally injured,” he said, without naming the dead.
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