No survivors as wreck of missing plane carrying Malawi Vice President and 9 others is found

The wreck of the missing aircraft carrying Malawi Vice President Saulos Chilima and 9 others has been found.

Malawian President Lazarus Chakwera said Tuesday, June 11, that there had been no survivors when a plane carrying the Vice President and nine others crashed into a forest.

“The plane has been found and I am deeply saddened and sorry to inform you all, it has turned out to be a terrible tragedy,” he said, in a televised address.

Malawian searchers have found the wreckage of a plane that was carrying Vice President Saulos Chilima, a military source said Tuesday, a day after the aircraft went missing in bad weather.

The military plane carrying Chilima, 51, and nine others disappeared on Monday, June 10, after it failed to land in the northern city of Mzuzu due to poor visibility and was told to return to the capital, Lilongwe.

Photographs shared with AFP by a member of the military rescue team showed army personnel standing on a foggy slope near debris bearing the registration number of the Malawi Army Air Wing Dornier 228-202K aircraft.

President Lazarus Chakwera was due to address the nation. It was not immediately clear if there were any survivors.

Rescuers had been combing a fog-cloaked forest south of Mzuzu on Tuesday, after authorities located the last tower it transmitted to before the plane disappeared.

Earlier, army commander General Paul Valentino Phiri said other countries, including Malawi’s neighbours, had been aiding the search effort, with support including helicopters and drones.

The group departed just after 9:00 am (0700 GMT) from Lilongwe on Monday to attend the funeral of a former cabinet minister some 370 kilometres (230 miles) away in Mzuzu.

Malawi’s former first lady Shanil Dzimbiri was also on board.