PUNCH NEWS
A United States of America aviation lawyer, Robert Clifford, has said the tragic helicopter crash that claimed the lives of the Group Chief Executive Officer of Access Holdings, Herbert Wigwe, and other prominent Nigerians in California on Friday could have been averted.
Clifford, who is the Founder and Senior Partner of Clifford Law Offices in Chicago, disclosed 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 a fatal crash.
The Airbus Helicopter EC130B4, carrying six occupants, including two crew members, crashed at a border town between California and Nevada.
Clifford’s statement came amid an ongoing investigation of the chopper crash by the US National Transportation Safety Board.
Already, investigators from the agency have transferred the aircraft wreckage to another location in the US for comprehensive laboratory examination and analysis.
The preliminary report of the crash is expected to be ready in four weeks, according to NTSB.
The statement, posted on Clifford Law Offices website read 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.”
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 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 10pm 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…
