An aircraft carrying Malawi’s vice president, Saulos Chilima, and nine others has gone missing after it failed to make a scheduled landing on Monday morning.
“All efforts by aviation authorities to make contact with the aircraft since it went off the radar have failed thus far,” the government said in a statement.
At approximately 9:00 am local time (0700 GMT), the aircraft departed with Vice President Chilima, aged 51, and nine additional passengers on board.
President Lazarus Chakwera has instructed both regional and national authorities to initiate an urgent search and rescue mission to locate the aircraft’s position.
President Chakwera, originally scheduled for a working visit to the Bahamas, has now canceled his trip. In 2022, Vice President Chilima faced a loss of authority when he was arrested and charged with corruption related to a bribery case involving a British-Malawian entrepreneur.
In the previous month, the Malawian court dismissed the charges against Chilima after he made multiple court appearances.
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