By Ebi Kesiena
Malawi’s vice president and nine others were killed in a
tragic plane crash, President Lazarus Chakwera announced on Tuesday.
The military plane carrying Vice President Saulos Chilima
was discovered in a remote mountainous area in the northern part of the country
after an extensive search lasting over a day. President Chakwera, in a live
address on state television, confirmed there were no survivors.
Recall that the media had reported
on Monday that the plane failed to land as scheduled, and all attempts by
aviation authorities to contact the aircraft have been unsuccessful.
The plane, also carrying a former first lady, went missing
on Monday morning while en route from Malawi's capital, Lilongwe, to the city
of Mzuzu, approximately 230 miles to the north. Despite a search effort
involving hundreds of soldiers, police officers, and forest rangers, the
wreckage was only found after more than 24 hours.
According to President Chakwera, air traffic controllers had
advised the plane not to land at Mzuzu’s airport due to poor weather and
visibility. They instructed the aircraft to return to Lilongwe, but contact was
lost and the plane disappeared from radar.
Onboard the small propeller-driven plane, operated by the
Malawian armed forces, were seven passengers and three military crew members.
The aircraft, identified by its tail number as a Dornier 228-type twin
propeller plane, had been delivered to the Malawian army in 1988, as reported
by ch-aviation, a website tracking aircraft information.
The search, involving around 600 personnel, focused on a
vast forest plantation in the Viphya Mountains near Mzuzu.
Vice President Chilima was serving his second term, having
previously held the role from 2014 to 2019 under former President Peter
Mutharika. He was a presidential candidate in the 2019 election, finishing
third. The vote was annulled by Malawi’s Constitutional Court due to
irregularities, leading to an historic election rerun in 2020 where Chilima
joined Chakwera’s campaign as his running mate, resulting in Chakwera's
election as president. This marked the first instance in Africa where a court-overturned
election led to a sitting president's defeat.
Chilima had recently been cleared of corruption charges,
which alleged that he had accepted money to influence government procurement
contracts for the Malawi armed forces and police. He denied the allegations,
and prosecutors dropped the charges last month. Despite this, the case had
sparked criticism regarding the administration's stance on corruption.
This tragic incident has left the nation in mourning as it struggles
with the sudden loss of its Vice President and the others onboard.
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