Malawi Vice President Saulos Chilima and nine others, including his wife, tragically lost their lives when their plane crashed in the Chikangawa mountain range, President Lazarus Chakwera announced on Tuesday.
Chakwera expressed his deep sorrow in a statement: “I’m deeply saddened. I’m sorry to inform you all that it has turned out to be a terrible tragedy. The search and rescue team has found the aircraft near a hill, completely destroyed with no survivors.”
The President added, “Despite the aircraft’s track record and the crew’s experience, something went terribly wrong on its flight back to Lilongwe, resulting in this devastating crash.”
The plane, carrying Chilima, a potential presidential candidate for Malawi’s next general election, went missing on Monday. It was scheduled to land at Mzuzu airport at 10:02 a.m., but bad weather and poor visibility prevented it from doing so. The plane was then directed to return to Lilongwe but lost contact and vanished from radar. Chakwera confirmed that all passengers died on impact and that the military is retrieving their remains.
After the plane went missing, several countries, including the United States, offered technological support for the search operations.
Chilima, 51, was a prominent candidate for the 2025 presidential election in Malawi. In 2022, he faced graft allegations, accused of receiving kickbacks from a businessman for government contracts. However, he denied the charges, which were eventually dropped by the national prosecutor in May this year.
(With inputs from agencies)
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