Family of man killed in helicopter crash while headed to Super Bowl files lawsuit

In this photograph provided by the National Transportation Safety Board, an NTSB researcher surveys the tract of an Airbus Helicopters EC-130 connected Sunday, Feb. 11, 2024, adjacent Halloran Springs, Calif. Photo by Peter Knudson/National Transportation Safety Board via AP

LOS ANGELES  — The household of a Nigerian concern person who died successful a Southern California chopper clang that killed 5 others successful February filed a suit Wednesday claiming the formation should person been grounded due to the fact that of treacherous weather.

Relatives of Abimbola Ogunbanjo, the erstwhile seat of the Nigerian banal exchange, allege successful the tribunal filing that the charter company, Orbic Air LLC, improperly flew the chopper contempt a “wintry mix” of snowy and rainy conditions successful the Mojave Desert where the clang occurred connected Feb. 9.

Ogunbanjo, 61, was killed on with Herbert Wigwe, main enforcement of Nigeria's Access Bank, and Wigwe's woman and 29-year-old son. Ogunbanjo was connected his mode to Las Vegas to be the Super Bowl.

Both pilots — Benjamin Pettingill, 25, and Blake Hansen, 22 — besides died. They were licensed arsenic commercialized chopper pilots arsenic good arsenic formation instructors.

Andrew C. Robb, 1 of the attorneys who filed the lawsuit, said Ogunbanjo's household is seeking "answers and accountability.”

“Helicopters bash not bash precise good successful snowfall and ice,” Robb told The Associated Press. "This formation was wholly preventable, and we don’t cognize wherefore they took off.”

Ogunbanjo's woman and 2 children filed the suit successful San Bernardino County Superior Court connected Wednesday against Orbic Air and its CEO, Brady Bowers, alleging wrongful decease and negligence.

The suit besides names the unidentified successors of Pettingill and Hansen, whom Ogunbanjo’s household besides faults.

Orbic Air did not reply to an email and telephone telephone seeking comment.

The National Transportation Safety Board is inactive investigating the origin of the crash. In February, the bureau released a preliminary probe report that outlined the helicopter's formation way and provided details astir wreckage that was strewn crossed 100 yards (91 meters) of godforsaken scrub.

Investigators recovered the fuselage was fragmented, and the cockpit and compartment were destroyed. Damage to the motor and the metallic deposits that were recovered would bespeak that it was operational astatine the clip of the crash.

The study cited instrumentality enforcement, saying respective witnesses who were traveling successful vehicles on Interstate 15 had called 911 to study observing a “fireball” to the south. The witnesses reported that it was raining with a premix of snow.

The chopper near Palm Springs Airport astir 8:45 p.m. connected Feb. 9 and was traveling to Boulder City, Nevada, which is astir 26 miles (40 kilometers) southeast of Las Vegas, wherever the Kansas City Chiefs and the San Francisco 49ers were acceptable to play that Sunday in Super Bowl 58.

The suit seeks a assemblage proceedings and outgo for Ogunbanjo's burial and ceremonial expenses, arsenic good arsenic different damages.