Malawi’s Vice president and 9 others have been tragically ki!led in a plane crash

Malawi’s Vice president and 9 others have been tragically ki!led in a plane crash

Malawi’s Vice President Saulos Chilima and nine others tragically lost their lives in a plane crash in the country’s mountainous north, due to bad weather, announced President Lazarus Chakwera on Tuesday.

Malawi’s Vice President who was 51 years old and the other passengers were on a small military plane which went missing on Monday morning, and after an extensive search lasting over 24 hours, the wreckage was discovered in thick forests and hilly terrain near Mzuzu.

President Chakwera stated that the plane had been “completely destroyed,” and all aboard had perished upon impact.

Chakwera described it as a “terrible tragedy”. “There are no words to express how terrible this is, and I can only imagine the immense suffering and agony you all must be going through.” He referred to Chilima as “a good man, a formidable vice president, a patriotic citizen who served his country with distinction, and a devoted father and husband.”

According to Chakwera, the remains of the victims are being transported to Lilongwe, the capital of southern Africa. The seven passengers included former first lady Shanil Dzimbiri, the ex-wife of former President Bakili Muluzi, as well as personnel from Chilima’s entourage and security detail. The crew consisted of three people.

The jet was on a 45-minute flight from Lilongwe to Mzuzu, some 370 kilometers (230 miles) to the north, when it vanished on Monday about 10 a.m. Hundreds of troops, police officials, and forest rangers had been looking for it.

The gang was on its way to a former government minister’s burial. Due to terrible weather and low visibility, air traffic authorities advised the jet to return to Lilongwe instead of attempting a landing at the airport in Mzuzu. At that point, the aircraft vanished from radar and air traffic control lost communication with it.

According to Chakwera, the wreckage was discovered south of Mzuzu in the Chikangawa Forest. Photos from the location revealed the remains of the aircraft in an open space close to the forest line, with heavy fog covering the hills. The president identified the aircraft as a tiny, Malawian armed forces-operated propeller-driven aircraft.

Representatives from Chilima’s opposition United Transformation Movement party argued that the government’s response was too late and that the absence of a transponder on the aircraft was worrisome for a jet transporting a high-ranking group.

Malawi had been headed by Chilima and Chakwera in peculiar circumstances. In 2019, they both entered the presidential race as rivals, but they joined forces to successfully challenge the election results in court on the grounds of irregularities. They went on to win the repeat, making history as the first in Africa where the incumbent president lost an election after a court reversed the original results.

As part of their agreement, Chilima had claimed that Chakwera had consented to resign after his first term and to let him run for president in the next year’s election. But once Chakwera declared he would seek reelection, tensions between the two appeared to be growing.

In addition, Chilima was charged with corruption lately due to claims that he was paid to influence the government’s decision to grant contracts for the police and armed forces. Last month, the prosecution dismissed the accusations. He had refuted the accusations.

Chilima had just arrived back on Sunday from an official trip to South Korea. After serving as vice president under previous President Peter Mutharika from 2014 to 2019, he was in his second term in office.

An international response was spurred by the plane’s disappearance. The United States, the United Kingdom, Norway, and Israel, according to Chakwera, have supplied support and given “specialized technologies.” The Department of Defense’s small C-12 plane was offered for usage, and the U.S. Embassy in Malawi reported it had helped. Malawi also requested assistance from Tanzania and Zambia, its neighbors.

The World Bank listed Malawi, a nation of over 21 million people, as the fourth poorest country in the world in 2019.