Access Bank CEO Roosevelt Herbert Wigwe, his wife, son, and three others were killed in a helicopter crash in the Mojave Desert near the California-Nevada border late Friday night, according to a World Trade Organization official.
The plane crashed Friday night near Nipton, California, with six people on board, the Federal Aviation Administration said.
The New York Times has confirmed the incident but kept the identities of the passengers.
However, sources in the banking industry reportedly confirmed that the bank chief was on board the ill-fated aircraft.
As of Saturday morning, no survivors had been found, the San Bernardino County Sheriff’s Department said in a statement.
“We were made aware of a downed aircraft at approximately 10:12 p.m., on February 10, 2024. The scene of the crash was determined to be east of the 15-Freeway, near Halloran Springs Road,” the sheriff’s department said.
The FAA identified the helicopter as a Eurocopter EC 130. It was the second crash in one day in the U.S.
At least two people were killed Friday afternoon when a small plane that had lost both its engines crashed into a vehicle on a Florida interstate as the pilot attempted to make an emergency landing.
Earlier this week, five U.S. Marines died after a military helicopter went down in the mountains near San Diego.
Nigeria’s President Bola Ahmed Tinubu called the deaths “an overwhelming tragedy that is shocking beyond comprehension,” according to a statement released by his office.
The governor of Nigeria’s Edo State, Godwin Obaseki, said he is “extremely shocked and devastated” and said the deaths are an “irreparable loss.”
“Wigwe was a colossus in Nigeria’s financial sector, leading Access Bank to become an international brand that placed Nigeria on the global map of first-class financial services,” Obaseki said in a post on X.
Wigwe became the Group Managing Director and chief executive of Access Bank in 2014, according to the company’s website.
Wigwe became the Group Managing Director and chief executive of Access Bank in 2014, according to the company’s website.
