An aircraft carrying Malawi Vice President Saulos Chilima and nine other officials has gone missing. As per an official statement from the president's office, the defence force aircraft "went under the radar" after it left the capital on Monday morning.
As per the statement, the plane carrying the VP of the East African nation was scheduled to land at Mzuzu International Airport at 10 AM local time, however, the plane remains missing.
The Malawi VP had flown out to represent the government for the burial of former cabinet minister Ralph Kasamba, who passed away on Friday.
As per the country's information minister, the Mzuzu International Airport was the closest to where the funeral was taking place.
Malawi President Lazarus Chakwera has stated that ta search and rescue operation to find the missing plane is underway.
"Soldiers are still on the ground carrying out the search and I have given strict orders that the operation should continue until the plane is found," stated the president.
Following this incident, the president, who was scheduled to board a plane to the Bahamas on Monday morning, cancelled his flight.
A similar incident took place last month when a helicopter carrying the late Iranian President, Foreign Minister and eight others went missing. After a search operation which lasted for over 12 hours, the missing helicopter was found by teams who stated that the chopper had crashed, killing all those on board.
