Chilima, 8 others perish in plane crash

Engines railed and rushed as the plane charged into a battle of wills with nature, a fight for survival that, eventually, could not be won.

Time stood still on that lustrous plateau in Mzimba District in the Northern Region.

Nine heartbeats had frozen into eternity.

Death.

And the Malawi nation gasped.

For in the dead of winter, on this Monday, June 10, the carnage of death reared its ugly head of finality in the mountain forest ranges of Chikangawa, also known as Viphya Highlands.

Roughly 24 hours later, at midday on Tuesday, a teary-eyed and choking President Lazarus Chakwera carried out his solemn duty to inform a nation on edge and an incredulous world that the Malawi Defence Force (MDF) aircraft number MAFT03 carrying Vice-President Saulos Chilima and eight others, which had been declared missing a day earlier, had crashed.

The search and rescue operation Chakwera had ordered on Monday, found the aircraft near a hill in the Chikangawa Forest—“completely destroyed, with no survivors, as all passengers on board were killed on impact”.

“Words cannot describe how heart-breaking this is, and I can only imagine how much pain and anguish you all must be feeling at this time, as well as how much pain and anguish you all will be feeling in the coming days and weeks as we mourn this terrible loss,” said the President.

As he spoke, the nation’s mourner-in-chief was suppressing sobs that betrayed his personal grief and loss even as he consoled and comforted a stunned citizenry.

Just like that, his most senior governing partner in the Tonse Alliance—the man without whose sacrifice he probably would never have become the country’s President—was gone, along with eight other citizens.

“I consider it one of the greatest honours of my life to have had him as my deputy and counsellor for the past four years, and his passing is a terrible loss to his wife Mary, his family, his friends, his colleagues in Cabinet, and to all of us as a nation that found his leadership and courage a source of inspiration,” Chakwera said

The plane was found about five kilometres east of the M1.

Upon learning about the search and rescue mission, some locals around the area near Raiply Limited reported seeing the plane flying low, with a heavy sound. However, the search on Monday yielded nothing concrete until it was suspended to day break around 9am on Tuesday.

Come on Tuesday, several search teams led by MDF, Malawi Police Service and the Malawi Red Cross Society were dispatched to several locations, including Bombo area and Nthungwa.

During the search, locals selflessly helped the search mission with many of them being overheard praying that Chilima and the other eight on board be found alive.

However, it never turned out that way.

The plane was heavily damaged and some MDF officials on site suspected it might have hit a high lying area and rolled off the terrain.

With the remains discovered, the teams gathered at Nthungwa, joined by politicians, including Speaker of Parliament Catherine Gotani Hara, former vice-president Khumbo Kachali and People’s Transformation Party president Kamuzu Chibambo.

Immediately after learning that no one had survived, people broke in tears.

It took almost four hours for the remains to be retrieved and transported to Raiply aerodrome at 3.51pm where they were loaded into two helicopters, one belonging to the Zambia Air Force.

Hundreds of people gathered and tussled with the military who had to fire in the air to stop the crowd from getting close to the planes.

“Chilima was a great leader; don’t tell us how to grieve,” some were overheard shouting at the police officers.

In an interview, a resident of the area, Reverend Muyanga Msiska, who claimed to have seen the plane on Monday circling the area, said was heartbroken to hear that Chilima was among those on board.

“We only saw people searching for the plane around 4pm on Monday, which should not have been the case, as the plane flew past here at around 10am before it went missing,” he said.

Alliance for Democracy (Aford) vice-president Timothy Mtambo, who was at the aerodrome, described the late Chilima as a patriotic and focused leader who wanted positive change for the country.

He said in Chilima, Malawi has lost an icon.

“Chilima was a person with vision, he knew where the country wanted to be, and in him, we had a true development conscious comrade,” said Mtambo.

Meanwhile, Malawi Red Cross Society communication specialist Felix Washoni said the weather delayed the search exercise.

He said: “It was too foggy on Monday and the search team could not see anything. We had the same problem when we started the search on Tuesday. The road was very bad and too foggy.

“We should also thank the communities for pointing out that they had heard a sound of a clash. That tip helped us to get to the site of the crash.”

Washoni also noted that the search efforts in Malawi face numerous gaps, especially in terms of equipment, which needs addressing.

“We have well-trained personnel in search and rescue, but we lack equipment. Even here, we are lacking some equipment to cut the wreckage of the aircraft to remove some bodies,” he said at the crash site.

In a late night address on Monday, President Lazarus Chakwera said the MDF aircraft left Mzuzu Airport at 7.05am on Monday and landed at Kamuzu International Airport (KIA) in Lilongwe at 7.48am to pick the Vice-President and others to Mzuzu en route to Nkhata Bay District to attend the funeral of former Attorney General and Minister of Justice Ralph Kasambara who died on Friday.

Besides Chilima, others on board were former first lady Shanil Dzimbiri, Lukas Kapheni, Chisomo Chimaneni, Dan Kanyemba and Abdul Lapukeni. The flight was operated by Colonel Sambalopa, Major Flora Selemani and Major Aidin from MDF.

Meanwhile, the President last night directed that the nation observes 21 days of mourning starting on Tuesday, June 11, to Monday, July 24 in honour of the late Chilima and the other eight. The President also ordered that all flags be flown at half-mast throughout the official grieving period.