Malawi Vice President Saulos Chilima and 9 others have been confirmed dead in a plane crash. The Malawi Defence Forces Chopper aboard Chilima and 9 others failed to land at Mzuzu airport in Northern Malawi at 10 yesterday morning and efforts to trace it begun immediately.
The MDF aircraft was reported to have “went off the radar” just after it left the nation’s capital, Lilongwe, Malawi.
Reports say he was planning to vie as president in next year general elections.
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The plane carrying the 51-year-old Vice President left the southern African nation’s capital, Lilongwe, at 9:17 a.m. and had been expected to land 45 minutes later at Mzuzu International Airport, about 370 kilometers (230 miles) to the north.
But air traffic control told it to not attempt a landing and to turn around because of bad weather and poor visibility, Chakwera said in an address broadcast live on state TV channel MBC.
Air traffic control lost contact with the aircraft and it disappeared from radar a short time later, he said.
This is not the first time that a renowned leader has died in a plane crash. General Francis Ogolla died in a chopper crash on April 18,