A plane carrying Malawi’s vice president and nine went missing on Monday morning.
The military plane carrying Malawi Vice President Saulos Chilima took off from Lilongwe, the capital of Malawi, at 9:17 a.m. on Monday but failed to land at its designated designation.
ABC News reported that the flight was scheduled only for 45 minutes, but Chilima’s plane had been missing for several hours.
Malawi authorities have reported the plane has gone “off the radar,” and a search operation has commenced.
Malawian President Lazarus Chakwera’s office released a statement that read, “All efforts to make contact with the aircraft since it went off radar have failed thus far,”
DEVELOPING: More than 7 hours after it should have landed, a plane carrying Malawi’s vice president Saulos Chilima is still missing.
“All efforts by aviation authorities to make contact with the Aircraft since it went off the radar have failed thus far,’ authorities say pic.twitter.com/zfGBrZgTCM
— Larry Madowo (@LarryMadowo) June 10, 2024
Per ABC News:
A military plane carrying Malawi’s vice president and nine others went missing Monday and a search is underway, the president’s office said.
The plane carrying 51-year-old Vice President Saulos Chilima left the southern African nation’s capital, Lilongwe, at 9.17 a.m. but failed to land as scheduled around 45 minutes later at Mzuzu International Airport, about 370 kilometers (230 miles) to the north.
Aviation authorities lost contact with the plane when it “went off radar,” according to a statement from Malawian President Lazarus Chakwera’s office. Chakwera ordered a search operation and canceled a trip to the Bahamas, his office said.
“All efforts to make contact with the aircraft since it went off radar have failed thus far,” it said.
Chakwera was informed of the missing plane by Gen. Valentino Phiri, the head of the Malawian armed forces. The president ordered national and local authorities to “conduct an immediate search and rescue operation to locate the whereabouts of the aircraft,” his office said.
Another World Leader Accident.
“The plane carrying Malawi’s Vice President, Saulos Chilima, went off the radar and cannot be tracked. Search and Rescue under way…” pic.twitter.com/FlaL8Zac6L
— Liz Churchill (@liz_churchill10) June 10, 2024
This is a developing story…