Malawi’s Vice President Saulos Klaus Chilima and nine others have been killed in a plane crash. The military plane they were travelling in crashed. The crash also killed former First Lady Shanil Dzimbiri.
Chilima was a presidential candidate
Chilima went missing on Monday.
Chakwera said in an address to the nation. “I’m deeply saddened, I’m sorry to inform you all that it has turned out to be a terrible tragedy. The search and rescue team has found the aircraft near a hill. They have found it completely destroyed with no survivors.”
The plane left the capital Lilongwe at 09:17 a.m. (0717 GMT) on Monday but was unable to land at Mzuzu airport as scheduled at 10:02 a.m. due to poor visibility. It went off the radar. Aviation authorities could not make contact with it.
The military is bringing the deceased’s remains back to the capital.
Images shared online showed security and rescue personnel on the crash site on a hillside. There was debris scattered around the tail of the Dornier 228-202K military transport plane.
Chilima attended Korea-Africa summit
Chilima, 51, returned from South Korea on Sunday after participating in the Korea-Africa summit. He was travelling with the other passengers on Monday morning to attend the funeral of Malawi’s former justice minister in the north of the country.\
Chilima, a former director of Airtel Malawi was the leader of the United Transformation Movement party. He partnered with Chakwera to form the ruling Tonse Alliance and ran as his running mate in their 2020 victory.
Relations between the two had become tense ahead of the 2025 presidential election.
With inputs from Reuters
