A plane carrying the vice president of Malawi, a southeast African country, and nine other people has been reported missing.
Malawi’s Vice President Saulos Chilima and nine others are missing after leaving the Malawian capital, Lilongwe, at about 9:17 a.m. to attend the funeral of Malawi’s former Attorney General, Ralph Kasambala, confirmed Lucky Sikwese, an aide in Chilima’s office. according to To The New York Times.
The plane has reportedly disappeared from radar systems and authorities have been unable to contact it.
Sikwese said aviation authorities had confirmed that the Malawi Defence Force aircraft “did not land at any airport” after failing to land at Mzuzu International Airport due to bad weather.
“The Civil Aviation Authority has confirmed that the plane did not land at any airport,” Sikwese said in a statement.
According to the media, Chilima was arrested and charged in 2022 with allegedly accepting money in exchange for government contracts.
In May, prosecutors Dropped Corruption charges against Chilima.
The media reported that Malawi President Lazarus Chakwera responded to the missing plane by “launching a search and rescue operation involving both national and regional agencies.”
News of the missing plane comes a month after a plane carrying Iranian President Ebrahim Raisi and other government officials was reported to have gone missing and crashed in the country’s mountainous region due to bad weather.
Rescue teams retrieve bodies at the site of the helicopter crash carrying Iranian President Ebrahim Raisi and others in the misty Varzagan mountain range in northwestern Iran on May 20, 2024. (AZIN HAGHIGHI/MOJ News Agency/AFP via Getty Images)
