General News
A United States aviation lawyer, Robert Clifford, has said the helicopter crash that claimed the lives of the Group Chief Executive Officer of Access Holdings, Herbert Wigwe, and his family in California last Friday, could have been averted.
Clifford said this in a press statement posted on the company’s website on Wednesday.
Wigwe, his wife Doreen, his son Chizi, and a former Group Chairman of the Nigerian Stock Exchange, Abimola Ogunbanjo, lost their lives in the fatal crash.
The Airbus Helicopter EC130B4 crashed at a border town between California and Nevada.
Clifford was the Lead Counsel in the crash of a Boeing 737 MAX8 plane in Ethiopia which killed all the 157 souls on board from 35 countries on March 10, 2019.
The statement reads in part: “The crash of a helicopter that killed six people including a top Nigerian banker and his family along the California-Nevada border Saturday night immediately strikes one as a tragedy that may have been avoided given the known weather conditions at that time.”
The US attorney, who claimed to have also represented victims of many helicopter crashes questioned the decision of the pilots and others to allegedly take off in what was described as difficult weather conditions.
There were media reports that during the crash at 10 pm on Friday, residents of the area reported rain and wintry weather conditions.
However, Clifford expressed hopes that the US National Transportation Safety Board would unravel if the crash was avoidable or not after its ongoing investigations.
Clifford said: “The National Transportation Safety Board investigators will thoroughly examine all aspects of what led up to the crash and ultimately will use their expertise to determine the probable cause of this crash to see if it was avoidable.”
The preliminary report of the crash is expected to be ready in four weeks, according to the NTSB.
THE NATION
15th February, 2024.
C.E.
Tags: Abimola Ogunbanjo Herbert Wigwe Nigerian Stock Exchange Robert Clifford
