Malawi Vice President Dr Saulos Chilima & 9 others die in plane crash after aircraft vanished over mountain forest

MALAWI'S vice president and nine others have been killed after their military aircraft crashed into a mountainous forest.

A huge search operation was launched after the plane carrying Dr Saulos Chilima, 51, failed to land in Lilongwe on Monday.

The aircraft, which also had former first lady Shanil Dzimbiri on board, left the southern African nation's capital, Lilongwe, at 9.17am local time (07.17GMT) for a 45-minute flight to Mzuzu.

But air traffic control warned the pilot not to attempt a landing and to turn around because of bad weather, President Lazarus Chakwera said.

Controllers then lost contact with the aircraft and it vanished from radar a short time later.

Hundreds of soldiers, police officers and forest rangers combed the area for hours before eventually tracking down the wreckage on Tuesday.

Gen. Valentino Phiri, the commander of the Malawian armed forces, said Tuesday that the thick forest and hilly terrain were making the search operation extremely difficult.

Around 600 personnel were involved in the search in a vast forest plantation in the Viphya Mountains near Mzuzu, authorities said.

All ten on board - seven passengers and three military crew - have been confirmed dead, the president confirmed in a live address.

Chakwera said: "The search and rescue operation I ordered to find the missing plane that carried our vice president and nine others has been completed.

"The plane has been found. And I am deeply saddened and sorry to inform you that it has turned out to be a terrible tragedy."

He said the aircraft was a small, propeller driven plane operated by the Malawian armed forces.

A tail number he provided shows it is a Dornier 228-type twin propeller plane that was delivered to the Malawian army in 1988, according to the ch-aviation website that tracks aircraft information.

Chakwera said Dzimbiri, the ex-wife of former President Bakili Muluzi, was also one of the passengers.

The group was travelling to attend the funeral of a former government minister. Chilima had just returned from an official visit to South Korea on Sunday.

Chilima was serving his second term as vice president.

He was also in the role from 2014 until 2019 under former President Peter Mutharika.

Chilima was a candidate in the 2019 Malawian presidential election and finished third, behind the incumbent, Mutharika, and Chakwera.

The vote was later annulled by Malawis Constitutional Court because of irregularities.

Chilima then joined Chakweras campaign as his running mate in an historic election rerun in 2020, when Chakwera was elected president.

It was the first time in Africa that an election result that was overturned by a court resulted in a defeat for the sitting president.

Chilima had previously been facing corruption charges over allegations that he received money in return for influencing the awarding of government procurement contracts for the Malawi armed forces and the police.

But prosecutors dropped the charges last month, and he had denied the allegations

The case, however, led to criticism that Chakwera's administration was not taking a hard enough stance against graft.