A plane carrying the vice president of Malawi, a southeast African country, and nine other people is reportedly missing.
Malawi Vice President Saulos Chilima and nine other people are reportedly missing after departing from Lilongwe, the capital of Malawi, around 9:17 a.m. for the funeral of former Malawi Attorney General Ralph Kasambara, Lucky Sikwese, an aide in Chilima’s office, confirmed, according to the New York Times.
The aircraft reportedly disappeared from radar systems, and officials have not been able to get into contact with the plane.
Sikwese said aviation officials had confirmed that the Malawi Defense Force aircraft had “not landed at any of the airports” after the plane had missed its landing at Mzuzu International Airport due to severe weather.
“The Civilian Aviation Authority has confirmed that it has not landed at any airports,” Sikwese said in a statement.
Chilima was arrested and charged in 2022 over claims that he had allegedly taken money in exchange for government contracts, according to the outlet.
In May, a prosecutor dropped the corruption charges against Chilima.
The outlet noted that Malawi President Lazarus Chakwera had “deployed a search and rescue operation that included both national and regional agencies” in response to the missing plane.
News of the missing plane comes a month after it was reported that a plane carrying Iranian President Ebrahim Raisi and other officials had gone missing during severe weather in a mountainous part of the country and crashed.
Rescuers recover bodies at the crash site of a helicopter transporting Iranian President Ebrahim Raisi and others in a fog-covered mountainous area of Varzaghan in northwestern Iran on May 20, 2024. (AZIN HAGHIGHI/MOJ News Agency/AFP via Getty Images)
