Vice President of Malawi, Dr. Saulos Chilima, died in a plane crash, along with his wife and eight others

Johannesburg – Malawi’s Vice President Dr. Saulos Chilima and nine other people, including his wife, were killed when the plane they were traveling in crashed in the Chikangawa Mountains, the government said on Tuesday. President Lazarus Chakwera declared Tuesday a national day of mourning.

“Unfortunately, all on board were killed in the crash,” the Office of the President and Cabinet said in a statement Tuesday morning. The confirmation came after a search lasting more than a day in a forested area in the mountains of northern Malawi. The military plane crashed on Monday morning after taking off from the capital Lilongwe.

Chilima, 51, and the other passengers were on their way to the funeral of the country’s former attorney general when their plane disappeared from radar. Air traffic officials said the plane was unable to land at Mzuzu airport, about 320 kilometers north of the capital, due to poor visibility, and that the pilot had been advised to return to Lilongwe when the flight disappeared.

Chakwera told the nation on Tuesday that Chilima and his wife, along with seven military officers and another passenger, were on a small military aircraft, which the Associated Press reported was a Dornier 228-type twin-propeller aircraft delivered to the Malawian military. in 1988. The AP determined this information by comparing the plane’s tail number provided by Chakwera with data provided by the ch-aviation website.

Chilima, 51, was seen in Malawi as a possible candidate for next year’s presidential elections.

A somewhat controversial figure, he was arrested in 2022 on corruption charges, amid reports that he had received kickbacks from a businessman for government contracts.

Chilima consistently denied the charges until last month, when they were dropped by the National Prosecutor, who filed an indictment to drop the case.

In a nationally televised address on Monday evening, Chawera told the nation that the search and rescue operation would continue until Chilima’s plane was found.

“I know this is a heartbreaking situation,” he said, “and we are all scared and concerned.”

Several countries, including the United States, provided technological support for the search operation.

In a statement posted on social media Tuesday morning, the US embassy in Lilongwe said it was “deeply concerned by the news of the crash” and added an offer of “all available assistance, including a C-12 aircraft from Defence.”