Malawi’s president says the missing military aircraft carrying the country’s vice president Saulos Chilima has crashed.
The Malawi president Lazarus Chakwera has confirmed that the plane carrying the 51-year-old Chilima and nine others has crashed, killing everyone on board.
The announcement was made moments after images of a crash, presumed to be of the plane, started circulating on social media.
Malawi’s former first lady Shanil Dzimbiri (Muluzi) was also on board.
The group was travelling from the capital Lilongwe over 370 kilometres (230 miles) to the city of Mzuzu for the funeral of a former cabinet minister.
“Upon arrival in Mzuzu the pilot was unable to land the plane due to poor visibility occasioned by bad weather, and aviation authorities advised their aircraft to return to Lilongwe, but the authorities soon lost contact with the aircraft,” Chakwera said.
The head of state dismissed claims published by local media that search operations had been discontinued for the night.
Soldiers are “still on the ground carrying out the search and I have given strict orders that the operation should continue until the plane is found”, he said, adding that the army would give the public regular updates.
Chakwera had ordered regional and national forces to conduct an “immediate search and rescue operation” earlier in the day.
International support
He said he had already contacted the governments of various countries including the US, Britain, Norway and Israel, who had all offered support “in different capacities”.
“Including the use of specialised technologies that will enhance capacity to find the plane sooner.”
Chakwera said that a telecommunication signal located the plane within a 10 kilometre radius of Riaply, a timber milling company in the poor southern African nation located south of Mzuzu.
Soldiers looked for the missing aircraft with torches and on foot, according to local media reports.
Various unconfirmed reports have circulated that eye witnesses saw a plane crashing into the forest earlier on Monday.
Chakwera has cancelled a visit to the Bahamas.
First elected vice-president in 2014, the charismatic yet stern-talking Chilima is widely loved in Malawi, particularly among the youth.
But in 2022 during his second stint in the job, Chilima was stripped of his powers after being arrested and charged with graft over a bribery scandal involving a British-Malawian businessman.
Last month, a Malawian court dropped the charges
