Sola Faleye, the Personal Assistant to the late Group Managing Director and CEO of Access Bank Plc, Herbert Wigwe, said he escaped death by the whisker because he accompanied their luggage by road since the chopper could not carry it.
Falaye made this know at the night of tributes for his Kate boss, wife and son who dies in the unfortunate incident.
According to Mr Falaye, “Five of us embarked on that journey. I remember Mr Bimbo chatted me and said he wants to come with us , it was a Tuesday and I told him my boss journey is not always straight forward. Sometimes we can in he air and divert somewhere else. He said he will wait.
“I said he was still going to Abuja that day maybe he will be leaving later in the midnight and he said he was going to wait. I still try to let him understand that we will be in London Wednesday, Thursday and Friday. He said he will stay in his house and wait. I still don’t know why I was trying to convince him and we all went on the journey.
“I remember on Friday after my bosses’ board meeting in Access UK, he told me to call one of his business partners to have a meeting. He had that meeting and he said ride with me.
“We drove from Access UK to the house and we parked and we were all rushing to the airport. We got to the airport in Luiton and boarded. I t was a sweet journey. Eleven hours, we flew from London to Palmspring.”
He said he was supposed to fly in the chopper but on second thought he decided to accompany their luggage by road since the chopper could not carry it.
According to Falaye, he decided to accompany the luggage by road to ensure they arrived safely to his boss who told him it was a brilliant idea.
Falaye said, “I remember in the middle of the air, I walked up to him. I said sir, how comfortable are you flying chauffer in the night? I have never done it before and he said a word, this is American they have navigation system for flying chauffer at night.
“We landed everybody was filled with joy that we are finally almost there. Coming out we had two vans waiting, one was to take us to go board the chopper the other was to go take our luggages because they cannot go on the chopper.
“As they were loading the luggage and this thought started playing in my head that you will fly chopper one hour you are there, the next three and half hours the luggages are not going to come, will I go to bed? No. I still have to sit down for those luggage to come I am like why not just go with the luggages get there and deliver to him.
“Like I said I always reason in the line of duty and I walked up to him and said, sir, I think its safer and would be secure for me to ride and brin the luggage to you.He said brilliant idea and I said safe flight. Since 2019, we have always flown flights together.”
So he headed to Vegas by road with the luggage while Wigwe, his wife, son and Mr Ogunbajo boarded the chopper to the same destination.
While still driving to Vegas, Faleye tried to call his boss and the others on the chopper, but none of the calls went through.
He said, “Two and half hours into my journey, I was a bit sleepy in the car, so at exactly 10:09, mind you the chopper went down at 10:08. At 10:09 something just pricked me and I picked up my phone and I am like, they should have landed in my own estimation and I called him first. It wasn’t ringing, I called madam, it dint ring she has three numbers I called the three numbers, I called Chizi, I called Mr Bimbo.
“So I started sweating in the car, I was afraid. I was still on the road going to Vegas and I kept calling and I couldn’t reach anybody. So I called the driver that was to pick us up with the chopper, and he said 30 minutes he cannot see them on the rader again.”
