Two senior aides in the Office of the Vice-President (OVP) yesterday told the Ad hoc Committee of Parliament investigating the June 10 2024 military plane crash that fallen vice-president Saulos Chilima changed his travel plans.
In his testimony yesterday, OVP Principal Secretary (PS) for Administration Eric Yesaya told the committee in Lilongwe that Chilima initially indicated that he would not attend the funeral of his friend and former Attorney General Ralph Kasambara in Nkhata Bay.
But he said that on the evening of June 9 2024, then PS for the OVP Luckie Sikwese informed him that Chilima had changed his plans and intended to travel by a Malawi Defence Force (MDF) aircraft from Lilongwe to Mzuzu.
Yesaya said he was not furnished with details regarding the chartering process, which ordinarily requires presidential approval, a formal request to the MDF, payment arrangements and submission of a passenger manifest before an aircraft can be released.
He also said he may not have been informed about the finer details because he had remained in South Africa as part of an advance team that had travelled ahead of the vice-president during his return to Malawi from South Korea.
“I was informed about the incident on June 10 2024. From Chileka Airport where I had landed, I was told about the missing aircraft. From there, I did not go home. I went straight to the office, where I met the Principal Secretary and we proceeded to the vice-president’s residence, hoping to receive news that they had been rescued alive,” said Yesaya.
In his testimony, Sikwese told the committee that he facilitated the booking of the aircraft on June 9 after engaging the MDF on its availability.
He said he was informed that the aircraft was booked by Kasambara’s family to transport relatives back to Blantyre after the funeral and that he would need to seek the family’s consent which he subsequently did.
Sikwese said he later arranged the travel plans and that both he and Chilima’s widow, Mary Chilima were initially scheduled to travel to Nkhata Bay for the funeral, but their names were removed from the passenger list because the aircraft could only accommodate eight passengers.
He said that one of Chilima’s advisers, Emily Chinthu Phiri and another assistant Winnie Nyondo were also removed from the initial passenger list for the same reason.
Sikwese further told the committee that no memorandum was sent to then president Lazarus Chakwera informing him of Chilima’s planned trip to Nkhata Bay but he assumed that the late vice-president communicated directly with President Chakwera regarding the trip.
He also confirmed that condolence money amounting to K5 million from State House was given to Chilima’s aide at Kamuzu International Airport when officials went to see him off.
Sikwese said he remained in contact with Chilima up to 10.01am on June 10 and that his final WhatsApp message, sent at 11.37am was never responded to.
He told the committee that to this day he remains baffled by what he described as Chilima’s unusual lack of decisiveness before the accident.
Recalling previous trips he made with the fallen vice-president, Sikwese said Chilima was ordinarily a very decisive person.
“Should I have done something differently? Maybe I should have lied to him and created a story that would have brought him back. That is the reason I wrote that message,” he said.
Earlier inquiries, including a technical assessment by German aircraft manufacturers and former president Lazarus Chakwera-appointed commission of inquiry, largely attributed the crash to adverse weather and operational factors, pointing to no foul play.
But the findings failed to extinguish public scepticism, with lingering questions over information management, decision-making and other circumstances surrounding the tragedy.
President Peter Mutharika, voted back in office through the September 16 2025 General Election, ordered the fresh probe in February.
