Vice president's plane disappears over Malawi sky.
Beginning on Monday morning, the airplane of the vice president in Malawi has vanished. Due to awful weather conditions, the aviation board instructed the pilot to return, soon after which communication was lost.
A plane with Malawian Vice President Saulos Chilima and nine others might have crashed. The Malawian Presidency disclosed the plane has disappeared from the radar monitors. A hunt operation has been launched. President Lazarus Chakwera withdrew from a scheduled vacation to the Bahamas.
The plane departed from the capital Lilongwe on Monday at 9:17 am (local time) and vanished from the radar not long after that and failed to arrive as expected at the Mzuzu International Airport 370 kilometers away 45 minutes later. The air control center advised the pilot to switch back due to horrible weather and poor visibility, Chakwera shared in a relayed address on the national television MBC. Shortly after, the aircraft vanished, he added.
"I want to assure you that I won't leave any stone unturned to discover the plane," Chakwera said. The president held on to every hope that people on board would be discovered alive. The search operation proceeds around the clock, the president shared. "I've given orders to continue the search until the aircraft is found." The United States, Great Britain, Norway, and Israel have offered to aid in the quest, Chakwera said.
Reports signalled rescue units scouring a wooded region near Mzuzu for indications of the aircraft.
Chilima, 51-year-old VP since 2020, is being probed for corruption. He's accused of accepting funds in exchange for swaying government contract decisions. In May, the charges against him were abruptly withdrawn by the prosecution. Chilima, 51, was arrested in December. He's always denied the accusations.
It's been close to three weeks since President Ebrahim Raisi of Iran as well as his foreign minister Hossein Amirabdollahian and other passengers died in a helicopter crash.
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The search for the missing Malawian Vice President's plane, which disappeared over Malawi's sky, is being conducted in a wooded area near Mzuzu. Despite the plane's disappearance, the suspected corruption case against Vice President Saulos Chilima continues to unfold in Africa.
