LILONGWE, Malawi: Malawi’s Vice President Saulos Chilima was killed in a plane crash, the nation’s president said on Tuesday, after searchers located the wreckage of the aircraft in a foggy forest.
The military plane carrying Chilima, 51, and nine others disappeared on Monday, after it failed to land in the northern city of Mzuzu due to bad weather and was told to return to the capital, Lilongwe.
“The search and rescue team have found the aircraft ... completely destroyed with no survivors, as all passengers on board were killed on impact,” Malawi’s President Lazarus Chakwera said addressing the nation.
“Words cannot describe how heartbreaking this is,” he said, describing the accident as a “terrible tragedy.”
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.
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 neighbors, had been aiding the search effort, with support including helicopters and drones.
The group departed just after 9:00 a.m. (0700 GMT) from Lilongwe on Monday to attend the funeral of a former cabinet minister some 370 kilometers away in Mzuzu.
Malawi’s former first lady Shanil Dzimbiri was also on board.
Chakwera said he had previously flown on the same aircraft for similar trips. The crew had successfully operated it just hours before the accident, he added.
“And yet, 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,” he said.
First elected vice president in 2014, the charismatic yet stern-talking Chilima was a widely loved figure in Malawi, particularly among young people.
But in 2022, during his second stint in the job, Chilima was stripped of his powers after being arrested and charged with graft over a bribery scandal involving a British-Malawian businessman.
Last month, a Malawian court dropped the charges and he resumed his official duties.
“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.
“I consider it one of the greatest honors of my life to have had him as my deputy and counsellor for the past four years.”
Malawi VP, nine others, killed in plane crash
https://arab.news/jqh8n
Malawi VP, nine others, killed in plane crash
- First elected vice president in 2014, the charismatic yet stern-talking Saulos Chilima was a widely loved figure in Malawi
US bombers join Japanese jets in show of force after China–Russia drills
- Japan says US B-52 bombers flew with Japanese F-35s and F-15s
- South Korea and Japan have scrambled jets during Chinese and Russian drills
TOKYO: US nuclear-capable bombers flew over the Sea of Japan alongside Japanese fighter jets on Wednesday, Tokyo said, in a show of force following Chinese and Russian drills in the skies and seas around Japan and South Korea.
Japan and the US “reaffirmed their strong resolve to prevent any unilateral attempt to change the status quo by force and confirmed the readiness posture of both the Self-Defense Forces (SDF) and US forces,” Japan’s defense ministry said in a press release on Thursday.
The flight of two US B-52 strategic bombers with three Japanese F-35 stealth fighters and three F-15 air-superiority jets was the first time the US had asserted its military presence since China began military exercises in the region last week.
The display follows a joint flight of Chinese and Russian strategic bombers in the East China Sea and western Pacific on Tuesday and separate Chinese aircraft carrier drills that prompted Japan to scramble jets that Tokyo said were targeted by radar beams.
The encounter drew criticism from Washington, which said the incident was “not conducive to regional peace and stability” and reaffirmed that its alliance with Japan was “unwavering.”
Both Japan and South Korea host US forces, with Japan home to the biggest concentration of American military power overseas, including an aircraft carrier strike group and a US Marine expeditionary force.
China denied Tokyo’s accusation, saying Japanese jets flying near the carrier had endangered its air operations south of Japan.
South Korea’s military said it also scrambled fighter jets when the Chinese and Russian aircraft entered its air defense identification zone on Tuesday, an area that extends beyond its airspace and is used for early warning.
Regional tensions have risen since Japanese Prime Minister Sanae Takaichi triggered a dispute with Beijing last month with her remarks on how Tokyo might react to a hypothetical Chinese attack on Taiwan.
China claims democratically governed Taiwan and has not ruled out using force to take control of the island, which sits just over 100 km (62 miles) from Japanese territory and is surrounded by sea lanes on which Tokyo relies.
