Baghdad: Malawian Authorities announced finding the wreckage of Malawi’s Vice President’s military plane in a mountainous area in the north of the country after a search that lasted more than a day, and there were no survivors in the accident.
Malawi President Lazarus Chakwera said in a speech to the nation on Tuesday that all those on board the plane carrying his Vice President, Saulos Klaus Chilima, which disappeared yesterday, Monday, were killed.
Hundreds of soldiers, police officers and forest rangers searched for the plane, which also carried a former first lady, after it went missing on Monday morning during a 45-minute flight from Malawi’s capital, Lilongwe, to the city of Mzuzu, about 370 kilometers to the north.
The Malawian president had previously said that a plane carrying his vice president, Saulos Chilima, had disappeared.
He explained that it had left the capital Lilongwe at 7:17 am GMT, but failed to make the scheduled landing 45 minutes later at Mzuzu International Airport in the country
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He said that air traffic control in Mzuzu (the capital of Malawi’s northern region) advised the plane, carrying the vice president, not to attempt to land due to “poor visibility” and bad weather conditions, and recommended returning to the capital Lilongwe.
The President also said signals from telecommunications towers gave the plane’s last known location within a 10-kilometre (6-mile) radius in a forest reserve, which has since become a focus area for search and rescue operations by the Malawi Defence Forces.
Chakwera added in a video address that he had contacted neighboring countries and diplomatic partners to help in the search for the plane.
Source: National Iraqi News Agency