Plane carrying Malawi vice president goes missing
Search and rescue operations will continue until the missing aircraft carrying Malawi’s vice president Saulos Klaus Chilima is found, the southern African nation’s president says.
Chilima, 51, was aboard a military aircraft with nine others that left the capital Lilongwe on Monday morning, Malawi’s Office of the President and Cabinet said in an earlier statement.
It said efforts by aviation authorities to make contact with the aircraft since it went off the radar had failed. The plane had been scheduled to land at Mzuzu Airport at 10am.
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“I’m holding on to every fibre of hope that we’ll find survivors,” he said, adding that the search area was concentrated around a 10km radius in a forest reserve.
“I have given strict orders that the operation should continue until the plane is found.”
He said Malawi had reached out to neighbouring countries, and the US, Britain, Norway and the Israeli governments, for support in the rescue efforts.
Chilima, seen as a potential candidate in the 2025 presidential election, was arrested in 2022 over graft allegations.
However, a Malawi court dropped the corruption charges against him in May after the director of public prosecutions filed a notice for the case to be discontinued. Chilima has denied any wrongdoing.
with DPA and AP
