(Reuters) – Six people, including the group chief executive of one of Nigeria’s largest lenders, were killed in a helicopter crash in Southern California on Friday, authorities said.
Six people were on board the helicopter when it crashed around 10 p.m. near Nipton, California, the U.S. Federal Aviation Administration said in a statement.
Access Bank Group CEO Herbert Wigwe’s death was confirmed by Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala, director general of the World Trade Organization, in a post on X, along with that of Nigerian Exchange Group’s former Chairman Abimbola Ogunbanjo.
“Terribly saddened by the news of the terrible loss of Herbert Wigwe, Group CEO Access Bank, his wife and son as well as Bimbo Ogunbanjo in a helicopter crash,” Okonjo-Iweala said on X.
The San Bernardino County Sheriff’s Department said the scene of the crash was determined to be east of the 15-Freeway, near Halloran Springs Road, adding that no survivors had been located as of Saturday.
The FAA identified the helicopter as a Eurocopter EC 130 and said it would investigate along with the National Transportation Safety Board.
The helicopter was headed to Las Vegas when it crashed near a border city between Nevada and California, according to multiple reports.
(Reporting by Surbhi Misra and Jyoti Narayan in Bengaluru; Editing by Andrea Ricci)
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