10 people, including Malawi Vice President Saulos Klaus Chilima, were killed in the crash of a military aircraft on Monday. Image source: Defense Visual Information Distribution Service, via Picryl.
Malawi Vice President Saulos Klaus Chilima and nine others were killed after the plane they were travelling in crashed.
President Lazarus Chakwera confirmed their deaths in an address to the southeastern African nation on Tuesday 11 May.
The military transport plane carrying Chilima went missing on Monday.
The passengers, including Chilima and former first lady Shanil Dzimbiri, were travelling to attend the funeral of the former justice minister in the country’s north.
The plane took flight from the African nation’s capital Lilongwe at 9:17am local time earlier that day and was scheduled to arrive at Mzuzu International Airport at 10:02am.
Poor visibility prevented the plane from landing at Mzuzu airport, however, and it was ordered to return to Lilongwe.
After aviation authorities lost contact with the aircraft, President Chakwera ordered national and local authorities to “conduct an immediate search and rescue operation to locate the whereabouts of the aircraft”.
The search and rescue team located the aircraft’s remains near a hill in the Chikangawa forest, “completely destroyed”.
Unverified photos shared online appeared to show security and rescue personnel at the crash site of the Dornier 228-202K military transport plane.
Chakwera said all passengers on board were killed, and the military will return their remains to the capital.
“Despite the track record of the aircraft and the experience of the crew, something terrible went wrong with that aircraft on its flight back to Lilongwe, sending it crashing down and leaving us all devastated,” said Chakwera.
Chilima was seen as a potential candidate for president in the 2025 general election.
The leader of the United Transformation Movement party, he partnered with Chakwera to form the ruling Tonse Alliance and successfully ran as his running mate in the 2020 general election.
Chilima had just returned to Malawi from South Korea on Sunday after participating in the inaugural Korea-Africa summit in Soeul.
