For free real time breaking news alerts sent straight to your inbox sign up to our breaking news emailsSign up to our free breaking news emails
A military plane carrying Malawi’s vice-president and nine others has gone missing.
The Malawian Defence Force aircraft “went off radar” after it left Malwai capital Lilongwe on Monday morning, a statement from the office of the country’s president said.
“All efforts by aviation authorities to make contact with the Aircraft since it went off the radar have failed thus far,” Malawi’s Office of the President and Cabinet said.
A search and rescue operation was launched after aviation experts were unable to locate the plane.
Malawi vice president Saulos Klaus Chilima, 51, and nine other unnamed people were onboard.
The statement from the president’s office said the plane took off at around 9:17am local time and failed to meet its scheduled landing at Mzuzu International Airport at 10:02am.
Lazarus Chakwera, Malawi president, has been informed of the incident has cancelled his scheduled trip to the Bahamas, the statement said.
No further information was available.
Last month corruption charges against Dr Chilima were dropped after the state prosecutor filed a notice for the case to be thrown out.
He was arrested in November 2022 over claims that he accepted money in exchange for government contracts.
Dr Chilima denied the charges, which the prosecutor dropped without explanation.
The charges related to allegations that Dr Chilima received money to influence the awarding of contracts to Xaviar Ltd and Malachitte FZE.
The two companies are linked to the British businessman Zuneth Sattar, who also denied any wrongdoing.
Source link : https://www.independent.co.uk/news/world/africa/malawi-vice-president-aircraft-missing-saulos-chilima-b2560046.html
Author :
Publish date : 2024-06-10 17:01:28
Copyright for syndicated content belongs to the linked Source.