Malawi’s Vice President Saulos Chilima and nine others have died in a plane crash in the mountainous region of northern Malawi, President Lazarus Chakwera announced on Tuesday. Chilima, who was 51 years old, was among the casualties on board a small military aircraft that went down while en route to Mzuzu for a funeral.
In a live address on state television, President Chakwera confirmed the tragic incident, revealing that the wreckage had been discovered after more than a day of searching through dense forests and challenging terrain near Mzuzu. Unfortunately, there were no survivors.
Details of the Crash
The vice president was traveling with former first lady Shanil Dzimbiri, the ex-wife of former President Bakili Muluzi, and six other passengers, in addition to three military crew members. The flight originated from Malawi’s capital, Lilongwe, and was scheduled to be a 45-minute journey to Mzuzu, approximately 370 kilometers to the north.
According to President Chakwera, air traffic controllers had advised the plane against landing at Mzuzu’s airport due to adverse weather conditions and poor visibility. They had instructed the aircraft to return to Lilongwe, but contact with the plane was lost shortly thereafter, and it disappeared from radar.
The aircraft involved was a Dornier 228-type twin-propeller plane, operated by the Malawian armed forces and delivered in 1988. The tail number confirmed this identification, as noted by aircraft tracking information from the ch-aviation website.
Search and Recovery Efforts
The search operation involved around 600 personnel, including 300 police officers, 200 soldiers, and local forest rangers, who scoured the Viphya Mountains’ extensive forest plantations. International assistance was also offered by the U.S., U.K., Norway, and Israel, providing specialized technologies to aid in the search. The U.S. Embassy in Malawi confirmed it had offered a Department of Defense small C-12 plane to assist in the operation.
Chilima’s United Transformation Movement (UTM) party, distinct from President Chakwera’s party, criticized the government’s response as slow and raised concerns over the absence of a transponder on the plane, which they argued should be standard for a high-level delegation’s aircraft.
Legacy of Saulos Chilima
Saulos Chilima was serving his second term as vice president, having previously held the position from 2014 to 2019 under former President Peter Mutharika. He had been a prominent candidate in the 2019 presidential election and later joined forces with Chakwera as his running mate in the historic 2020 election rerun. This election marked a significant moment as it was the first time in Africa that a court-overturned election result led to the defeat of a sitting president.
Chilima had faced allegations of corruption concerning the awarding of government contracts, but the charges were dropped last month. He consistently denied the allegations, although the case brought scrutiny to the Chakwera administration’s approach to corruption.
National Impact
This tragic incident has profoundly impacted Malawi, a nation of about 21 million people and one of the world’s poorest countries according to World Bank rankings from 2019. The loss of a sitting vice president, especially under such circumstances, underscores the critical challenges and vulnerabilities faced by the country’s political and military infrastructure.
As Malawi mourns this loss, the incident also highlights ongoing issues within the country’s aviation safety and crisis response mechanisms, prompting potential reviews and reforms in the aftermath of this tragedy.
