Plane crash families that appeared before the Parliamentary Adhoc Committee on Monday say they suspects foul play in the manner the MCP government and President Dr. Lazarus Chakwera handled the events of the 10th June, 2024 surrounding the deaths of their loved ones- Dr. Saulosi Chilima and eight others.
Former Vice President Dr. Saulosi Chilima widow, Mary Nkhamanyachi Chilima said to this day, she is still waiting for an official report from government on the missing plane which crashed killing her husband – Dr. Saulosi Chilima and eight others.
She said she still have questions with the inquiry which was instituted by President Chakwera and the BFU report which failed to explain why the plane was moving upward and downward while still in the air.
Mary Chilima said she doesn’t understand why the search team sought assistance from the South African government to locate the missing plane when the MDF knew pretty well that the device that is used to locate the plane was not functioning since 2004.
She said she heard of the news of the plane crash from Mr. Lucky Sikwese, the former Principal Secretary in the office of the Vice President at 10;30 a.m on 10th June, 2024 but it took five hours for President Chakwera to inform the nation that in between the hours, what was government doing on the missing plane.
The window said she received three mobile phones from the MCP government which Dr. Chilima was using after one month and when the phones were handed back to her, they were broken raising suspicion that something happened to the phones while in the hands of government.
She said she tried to meet President Chakwera in person but was told she has to put it in writing the reasons she wanted to meet the president and told that she will meet him in January, 2025.
” I tried to go through the former First Lady Madam Monica Chakwera so that I can have an opportunity of meeting President Chakwera in person but I was told he was busy,” narrated Mary Chilima.
She said the way President Dr. Lazarus Chakwera and his MCP government handled the plane crash incident, Chakwera’s instituted Commission of Inquiry four months after, the delayed search team, and graphic pictures from the Chikangawa forest, she is still not believing that her husband – Dr. Saulosi Chilima and eight others, died in a plane crash.
Appearing before the committee earlier, the widow of Aircraft Engineer Major Wales Aidin, Taona Aidin said she sees 50/50 that the death of their loved ones was through the plane crash and human error contributed to it.
Taona Aidin dismissed claims the MCP government made that the families received autopsy reports and that they were part of the autopsy saying the families were even denied chance of seeing faces of their beloved ones following instructions from government that their bodies were in decomposed state.
