Plane with Malawi Vice President missing; search continues
The military plane is suspected to have crashed in a mountainous region in the north of the country
Blantyre: Soldiers, police officers and forest rangers continued to search on Tuesday for a missing military plane carrying Malawi‘s Vice President, a former first lady and eight others that is suspected to have crashed in a mountainous region in the north of the country.
The plane carrying 51-year-old Vice President Saulos Chilima and former first lady Shanil Dzimbiri went missing Monday morning while making the 45-minute flight from the southern African nation’s capital, Lilongwe, to the city of Mzuzu, around 370 kilometres to the north.
Also Read
Air traffic controllers told the plane not to attempt a landing at Mzuzu’s airport because of bad weather and poor visibility and asked it to turn back to Lilongwe, President Lazarus Chakwera said. Air traffic control then lost contact with the aircraft and it disappeared from radar, he said.
Seven passengers and three military crew members were on board. The president described the aircraft as a small, propeller driven plane operated by the Malawian armed forces. Around 600 personnel were involved in the search in a vast forest plantation in the Viphya Mountains near Mzuzu, authorities said. They said 300 police officers had been mobilized to join soldiers and forest rangers in the search operation.
Malawi Red Cross spokesperson Felix Washoni said his organisation also had team members involved in the search and they were using a drone to help with efforts to find the plane.
In a live television address to the nation late on Monday night, the president vowed that search operations would continue through the night and until the plane was found. He said authorities had used telecommunications towers to track the last known position of the plane to a 10-kilometre radius in 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 should continue until the plane is found,” Chakwera said. “I know this is a heartbreaking situation. I know we are all frightened and concerned. I too am concerned,” he said.
