Malawi’s Vice President Saulos Chilima was among 10 people killed when a small military plane crashed in a mountainous region in the country’s north, the president said Tuesday. Chilima was 51 years old.
President Lazarus Chakwera announced in a live speech on state television that the wreckage of the plane had been located after a search of more than a day in thick forests and mountainous terrain near the northern city of Mzuzu. Chakwera said that there were no survivors of the accident.
The plane that transported vice president Saulos Chilima and former first lady Shanil Dzimbiri He disappeared Monday morning while on a 45-minute flight from the southern African country’s capital, Lilongwe, to the city of Mzuzu, about 370 kilometers (230 miles) to the north.
Air traffic controllers told the plane not to attempt to land at Mzuzu airport due to bad weather and poor visibility and asked it to return to Lilongwe, president Lazarus Chakwera said. Air traffic control then lost contact with the aircraft and it disappeared from radar, he said.
There were seven passengers and three military crew members on board.. The president described the plane as a small propeller-driven aircraft operated by the Malawian armed forces.
About 600 people were involved in the search at a large forest plantation in the Viphya Mountains, near Mzuzu, authorities said. They said 300 police officers had been mobilized to join soldiers and rangers in the search operation. Malawi Red Cross spokesperson Felix Washoni said his organization also had team members involved in the search and were using a drone to assist in efforts to find the plane.
In a live televised address to the nation Monday night, the president said authorities had used telecommunications towers to track the last known position of the plane to a 10-kilometer (6-mile) radius on one of the plantations. That area was the focus of the search and rescue operation, he said.
“I have given strict orders that the operation continue until the plane is found,” Chakwera said.
Chakwera said Dzimbiri, the ex-wife of former president Bakili Muluzi, was also among the passengers. The group was traveling to attend the funeral of a former government minister. Chilima had just returned from an official visit to South Korea on Sunday.
The president asked Malawians to pray for the victims and their families.
Chilima was vice president since 2020. He was a candidate in the 2019 Malawi presidential election and finished third, behind the incumbent, Peter Mutharika, and Chakwera. The vote was later annulled by Malawi’s Constitutional Court due to irregularities.
Chilima then joined Chakwera’s campaign as his running mate in a historic rerun election in 2020, when Chakwera was elected president. It was the first time in Africa that an election result overturned by a court resulted in a defeat for the sitting president.
Chilima had previously faced corruption charges over allegations that he received money in exchange for influencing the awarding of government contracts, but prosecutors dropped the charges last month. He had denied the allegations, but the case sparked criticism that Chakwera’s administration was not taking a tough enough stance against corruption.
(with information from AP)
