Military plane carrying Malawi’s vice president has gone missing, search is underway

BLANTYRE, Malawi — Troopers are looking out mountainous forests close to a metropolis in northern Malawi after a army aircraft carrying the nation’s vice chairman and a former first girl went lacking within the space Monday, President Lazarus Chakwera mentioned.

The aircraft carrying 51-year-old Vice President Saulos Chilima, former first girl Shanil Dzimbiri and eight others left the southern African nation’s capital, Lilongwe, at 9:17 a.m. and had been anticipated to land 45 minutes later at Mzuzu Worldwide Airport, about 370 kilometers (230 miles) to the north.

However air site visitors management instructed it to not try a touchdown and to show round due to dangerous climate and poor visibility, Chakwera mentioned in an handle broadcast dwell on state TV channel MBC.

Air site visitors management misplaced contact with the plane and it disappeared from radar a short while later, he mentioned.

“I do know this can be a heartbreaking state of affairs. I do know we’re all frightened and anxious. I too am involved,” Chakwera mentioned. “However I wish to guarantee you that I’m sparing no obtainable useful resource to search out that aircraft. And I’m holding onto each fiber of hope that we are going to discover survivors.”

Mzuzu is Malawi’s third greatest metropolis and the capital of the northern area. It lies in a hilly, forested space dominated by the Viphya mountain vary, which has huge plantations of pine timber.

The president vowed that search operations would proceed by way of the evening and mentioned authorities utilizing telecommunications towers tracked the final recognized place of the aircraft to a 10-kilometer (6-mile) radius in one of many plantations. That space was the main focus of the Malawi Protection Power search and rescue operation, he mentioned.

“I’ve given strict orders that the operation ought to proceed till the aircraft is discovered,” Chakwera mentioned.

Chakwera mentioned the U.S., the U.Okay., Norway and Israel supplied help within the search operation and had offered “specialised applied sciences” that the president hoped would assist discover the aircraft sooner.

Chakwera mentioned Dzimbiri, the ex-wife of former President Bakili Muluzi, was additionally one of many passengers. The group was touring to attend the funeral of a former authorities minister. Three of these onboard have been the army crew flying the aircraft, the president mentioned.

Chakwera requested Malawians to hope for all these onboard and their households.

Chilima has been vice chairman since 2020.

He was a candidate within the 2019 Malawian presidential election and completed third. That vote was received by incumbent Peter Mutharika however was annulled by Malawi’s Constitutional Court docket due to irregularities. Chakwera completed second in that election.

Chilima then joined Chakwera’s marketing campaign as his working mate in an historic election rerun in 2020, when Chakwera was elected president. It was the primary time in Africa that an election end result that was overturned by a court docket resulted in a defeat for the sitting president.

The vice chairman had been dealing with corruption fees over allegations that he obtained cash in return for influencing the awarding of presidency contracts, however prosecutors dropped the fees final month. That led to criticism that Chakwera’s administration was not taking a tough sufficient stance towards graft.

Chilima was arrested in late 2022 and made a number of court docket appearances, however the trial has but to begin. He has denied the allegations.

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Imray reported from Cape City, South Africa.

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AP Africa information: https://apnews.com/hub/africa