Herbert Wigwe, the Chief Executive Officer of Access Holdings Plc, has tragically passed away following a helicopter crash in California, United States on Friday night. The helicopter, en route to Las Vegas, crashed near a border city between Nevada and California around 10 pm, claiming the lives of Herbert Wigwe, his wife, two children, and former group chairman of the Nigerian Exchange Group, Abimbola Ogunbanjo, along with five other passengers.
The US Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) revealed that the Eurocopter EC 130 crashed near Nipton, California, with no survivors found as of the following morning. The San Bernardino County Sheriff’s Department reported the incident, stating that they were alerted to the downed aircraft at approximately 10:12 pm on February 10, 2024. The crash site was identified as east of the 15-Freeway, near Halloran Springs Road.
As of now, no official cause of the crash has been reported by any agency or investigation. Herbert Wigwe, a prominent Nigerian banker and entrepreneur, was honored as the African Banker of the Year at the 2021 African Bankers Awards. Despite the tragic incident, there has been no official statement from the bank or the Wigwe family regarding his passing at the time of this report.