Wigwe’s PA, Faleye explains how he escaped helicopter crash

Sola Faleye, the Personal Assistant to the late Group Managing Director and CEO of Access Bank Plc, Herbert Wigwe, has revealed how he narrowly escaped the helicopter crash that killed his boss in the United States.

Wigwe, his wife, his son, and a business associate, Abimbola Ogunbajo, lost their lives when a chopper conveying them to a game crashed in California near the Nevada border.

Recounting how he cheated death, Faleye said he was supposed to fly in the helicopter with his boss, but on second thought, he decided to accompany their luggage by road since the chopper could not carry it.

He made this known while eulogizing Wigwe at the Night of Tributes held in his honour on Wednesday, where he also disclosed his conversation with Ogunbajo before the flight.

Speaking at the event, Faleye said: “Five of us embarked on that journey. I remember Bimbo chatted with me and said he wanted to come with us; it was a Tuesday. And I told him my boss’s journey is not always straightforward. Sometimes, you can get in the air and divert somewhere else, and he said he was going to wait,” Faleye said.

“I said he was still going to Abuja that day, and maybe he will be leaving later at midnight, and he said he was going to wait.

“I still tried to let him understand that we will be in London Wednesday, Thursday, and Friday; he said he will stay in his house and wait.

“We flew from London to Palm Springs. I remember, in the middle of the air, I walked up to him. I said, sir, how comfortable are you flying a chopper at night? I have never done it before. And he said a word, he said, ‘This is America, they have navigation systems for flying a chopper at night,’ and I went back to my seat.”

He added, “As they were loading the luggage, this thought started playing in my mind that, okay, you will fly a chopper, one hour you are there. The next three and a half hours, they are not going to come. Will I go to bed, no. I still have to sit down and wait for these luggage to come. I was like, why not just go with the luggage and get there and deliver it to him and others in the room. Like I said, I always reason in the line of duty. And I went up to him, I said, sir, I think it’s safer and will be secure for me to just ride and bring the luggage to you. He said, ‘brilliant idea,’ and I said, ‘safe flight.’”

Faleye went on to describe his late boss as a ‘great man.’