It appears there were systemic issues, and the flight risk assessment should have indicated a higher risk. While it’s easy to blame the pilot, there is a system behind the pilot that should have mitigated these risks.
The Nigeria Safety Investigation Bureau (NSIB) has issued an official response to the report released by the United States National Transportation Safety Board (NTSB) on the helicopter crash that tragically claimed the lives of Herbert Wigwe, former Group Chief Executive Officer of Access Holdings Plc, his wife, son, and three others.
In a statement released on Wednesday and signed by the NSIB’s Director of Public Affairs and Family Assistance, Mrs. Bimbo Oladeji, the agency took a divergent stance from the NTSB’s findings.
The U.S. agency primarily attributed the crash to pilot error, citing “spatial disorientation” and non-compliance with flight protocols—particularly the pilot’s decision to continue under visual flight rules in instrument meteorological conditions.
However, the NSIB maintained that the pilot should not bear sole responsibility for the fatal accident. Instead, it emphasized that broader systemic failures played a critical role, particularly shortcomings in risk assessment procedures that should have flagged the flight as high-risk.
The NSIB, Nigeria’s multimodal transport safety body, is tasked with promoting safety and conducting impartial, thorough investigations into all transport-related accidents. Its U.S. counterpart, the NTSB, performs a similar role in the United States.
Refuting reports that the crash investigation was jointly conducted, the NSIB clarified that it was not a co-investigator in the probe. Rather, it participated as an “interested party” and was kept informed of developments by the NTSB.
This clarification came despite earlier comments from NSIB Director-General, Alex Badeh, who confirmed in an interview with The Punch that the U.S. agency had shared its final report with the NSIB. At the time, Badeh declined to offer an official position on the findings, stating that the purpose of such reports was not to assign blame but to enhance safety in the aviation sector.
In its latest statement, the NSIB stressed the importance of evaluating the systemic aspects of the crash. “It appears there were systemic issues, and the flight risk assessment should have indicated a higher risk,” the agency stated. “While it’s easy to blame the pilot, there is a system behind the pilot that should have mitigated these risks.”
The bureau also reiterated that it had extended full cooperation to the NTSB during the course of the investigation but reaffirmed that it did not participate in a joint investigative capacity.
“We did not work side-by-side with the NTSB,” the agency explained. “We were an interested party and were kept abreast of the process by the NTSB, which led the investigation in the United States.”