President Lazarus Chakwera of Malawi revealed on Tuesday that Vice President Saulos Chilima and nine other passengers had perished in an aircraft crash.
After the plane failed to make a landing at Mzuzu International Airport, located roughly 380 kilometres (240 miles) north of the capital Lilongwe, it vanished from sight. In a speech to the country, Chakwera announced the location of the plane’s wreckage.
“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,” Chakwera said.
The Malawian leader disclosed that the aircraft was found “completely destroyed” near a hill in the Chikangawa Forest in northern Malawi, adding that “words cannot describe how heartbreaking this is.”
In his laudatory remarks, Chakwera called his deputy “a good man, a devoted father and husband, (and) a patriotic citizen who served his country with distinction.”
“His passing is a terrible loss to his wife, Mary, his family, his friends, his colleagues in the cabinet and to all of us as a nation,” Chakwera said in his address from the Malawian capital. The president also mourned the loss of the other passengers onboard.
The president of Malawi emphasised the terrible nature of the mishap by informing reporters that he had taken the same flight on another occasion.
“Yet despite the track record of the aircraft and the experience of the crew, something terrible went wrong with that aircraft on its flight back to Lilongwe,” he added.
The president informed reporters on Monday night that due to low visibility, air traffic control had ordered the vice president’s jet not to attempt a landing and to return to the capital. Shortly afterward, the authorities initiated a search and rescue mission after losing communication with the aircraft.
Earlier on Tuesday, the Malawi Defence Force said it had deployed drones and at least 200 soldiers to search for the plane at the Chikangawa Forest reserve where signals of its whereabouts were last received.
The vice president and nine other victims will all be laid to rest in “a dignified manner,” Chakwera said.
