Vice President of Malawi, Saulos Chilima, and nine other individuals are missing after their plane failed to land as scheduled on Monday, CNN reported. The presidential office and cabinet announced that Chilima and other passengers were on a Malawi Defence Force Aircraft that departed from Lilongwe at 9:17 a.m. local time (3:17 a.m. ET).
The plane was expected to land at Mzuzu International Airport, approximately 380 km (240 miles) north of Lilongwe. However, it never reached its destination and has since gone off radar. “All efforts by aviation authorities to make contact with the aircraft since it went off the radar have failed thus far,” the presidential statement read.
The commander of the Malawi Defense Force, General Valentino Phiri, informed President Lazarus McCarthy Chakwera of the incident. In response, the president has canceled his scheduled departure for the Bahamas and has ordered all regional and national agencies to conduct an immediate search and rescue operation to locate the missing aircraft. The search operation is currently underway, and further details are awaited.
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