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Akinwande Soji-Ojo
Sola Faleye, Personal Assistant to the late Group Chief Executive Officer of Access Holdings Plc, Herbert Wigwe, has recounted how he narrowly escaped the helicopter crash that claimed the lives of his boss, his wife, Chizoba, son, Chizzi and business associate, Abimbola Ogunbanjo.
Faleye made this known at the Night of Tributes held in Lagos, on Wednesday.
Faleye said he initially planned to travel by helicopter but reconsidered his stand,and opted to travel to Las Vegas by road with the luggage.
“It was a sweet journey, we flew for 11 hours from London. I remember that in the middle of the air, I walked up to him and said, ‘sir, how comfortable are you at night flying choppers? I’ve never done it before. The app allocation system for flying choppers, I have never done it before.’ And he said this is America, they have a navigation system for flying choppers at night and I went back to my seat. We landed, everybody was filled with joy that we were finally almost there.
“We sat, waiting to be cleared by immigration. So, coming out, we had two vans waiting, one was taking us to go and board the chopper. The other one took our luggage because they could not go with the chopper. Throughout my years of working with him, I’ve always told myself that flying that way is not a luxury for me, I am on duty. And as they were loading the luggage, this thought came to mind. That’s okay, you fly chopper one. One hour, you are there.
“The next three and half hours, the luggage will not come. Will I go to bed? No. I still have to sit down and wait for those luggage to come. I’m like, so why not just go with the luggage then, 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 walked up to him. I said, ‘sir, I think it’s safer and secure for me to just ride and bring the luggage to you.’ He said it was a brilliant idea. And I said, safe flight,” Faleye recounted.