An immediate search was launched after a military plane carrying nine people, including Vice President Saulos Chilima of Malawi, vanished on Monday, June 10, according to reports from the African country’s president’s office.
The aircraft was supposed to land about forty-five minutes after taking off from Lilongwe, the country’s capital. Nevertheless, it was unable to arrive at Mzuzu International Airport in the allotted time.
The city of Mzuzu, in the northern part of Malawi, is home to Mzuzu International Airport. The airport is approximately 370 kilometers north of where the vice president of Malawi’s plane takes off.
The jet “went off radar,” according to information from the office of Malawian President Lazarus Chakwera, and aviation authorities lost communication with it. President Chakwera has directed that “an immediate search and rescue operation be conducted to locate the whereabouts of the aircraft” in reaction to the event.
Both local and national agencies are conducting the search effort. In light of the circumstances, the president also postponed his intended trip to the Bahamas.
According to the president’s office statement, “all attempts to establish contact with the aircraft since it went off radar have failed thus far.”
General Valentino Phiri, the head of Malawi’s armed forces, notified the president about the vice president’s missing plane.
