BLANTYRE, Malawi. Malawi’s Vice President Saulos Klaus Chilima, along with nine others including former First Lady Shanil Dzimbiri, died in a tragic plane crash, President Lazarus Chakwera announced on Tuesday.
The military aircraft, which carried Chilima, a potential candidate for the 2025 presidential election, went missing on Monday. “I’m deeply saddened, I’m sorry to inform you all that it has turned out to be a terrible tragedy. The search and rescue team has found the aircraft near a hill. They have found it completely destroyed with no survivors,” Chakwera said in an address to the nation.
The plane departed from the capital, Lilongwe, at 09:17 a.m. (0717 GMT) on Monday, but failed to land at Mzuzu airport at the scheduled time of 10:02 a.m. due to poor visibility. It was then ordered to return to Lilongwe but lost contact with aviation authorities and went off the radar.
Chakwera confirmed that all passengers died on impact, and the military was in the process of bringing their remains back to the capital. “Despite the track record of the aircraft and the experience of the crew, something terrible went wrong with that aircraft on its flight back to Lilongwe, sending it crashing down and leaving us all devastated,” he said.
Images shared online depicted security and rescue personnel at the crash site on a hillside, with debris scattered around the tail of the Dornier 228-202K military transport plane, its tail number MAF T03 still visible. Reuters has not authenticated these pictures.
Chilima, 51, had returned from South Korea on Sunday after participating in the Korea-Africa summit and was traveling with the other passengers on Monday morning to attend the funeral of Malawi’s former justice minister in the northern part of the country. “Dr. Saulos Klaus Chilima was a good man, a devoted father and husband, a patriotic citizen who served his country with distinction, and a formidable vice president,” Chakwera said.
Chilima, a former director of Airtel Malawi, was the leader of the United Transformation Movement party. He had partnered with Chakwera to form the ruling Tonse Alliance, securing victory in the 2020 election. However, relations between the two had become tense ahead of the 2025 presidential election, in which the vice president was expected to challenge the president.
In 2022, Chilima was arrested over graft allegations, though a court dropped the charges last month after the director of public prosecutions filed a notice to discontinue the case. Chilima had denied any wrongdoing.
Si Venus L Peñaflor ay naging editor-in-chief ng Newsworld, isang lokal na pahayagan ng Laguna. Publisher din siya ng Daystar Gazette at Tutubi News Magazine. Siya ay isa ring pintor at doll face designer ng Ninay Dolls, ang unang Manikang Pilipino. Kasali siya sa DesignCrowd sa rank na #305 sa 640,000 graphic designers sa buong daigdig. Kasama din siya sa unang Local TV Broadcast sa Laguna na Beyond Manila. Aktibong kasapi siya ng San Pablo Jaycees Senate bilang isang JCI Senator.
