The United States National Transportation Safety Board (NTSB) has released its final report on the helicopter crash that killed Herbert Wigwe, his wife Doreen, their son Chizi, and their friend Abimbola Ogunbanjo. The crash happened on February 9, 2024, near the California-Nevada border, and claimed six lives.
According to the NTSB, the crash was mainly caused by the pilot’s poor decision to fly under visual flight rules despite bad weather. This led to what is known as spatial disorientation, meaning the pilot lost control of the helicopter because he couldn’t properly sense direction in the cloudy weather.
The report also pointed to serious safety failures by the helicopter company. It said the operator did not make sure pilots were following important safety procedures, like checking flight risks, reporting technical faults, and complying with federal flight rules.
One of the major technical issues mentioned was a faulty radar altimeter — a tool that helps pilots know how high they are flying. Before the flight, the pilot told the company’s maintenance director about the issue, and a mechanic tried to fix it but couldn’t. Still, the helicopter took off with the faulty equipment.
The pilot and the company president, who also acted as flight tracker, spoke on the phone before the fatal flight but did not talk about the broken equipment or bad weather conditions.
The NTSB concluded that a combination of poor judgment and failure to follow safety standards by the company and pilot caused the deadly crash.
