Centre for Human Rights and Rehabilitation (CHRR) says there are more questions than answers in the report by the Commission of Inquiry into the plane crash that killed Vice-President Saulos Chilima and eight others.
Speaking in an interview yesterday, CHRR executive director Michael Kaiyatsa said the inquiry has not established anything new as most of its findings confirm what was already in the public domain.
The commission, led by High Court of Malawi Judge Jabbar Alide, presented its findings in Lilongwe on Saturday evening.
The report stated that there was no evidence of technical fault of the plane, adding that the aircraft was in good condition and had only attained 3 000 hours of flying at the time of the accident.
Further, the commission acknowledged that a technical investigation being conducted by the German Federal Bureau of Aircraft Accident Investigation was underway.
But Kaiyatsa said citizens had a right to know who authorised the plane to leave for Mzuzu in the stated bad weather and which other officials were involved and their roles.
He said: “Malawians expected the inquiry would look at who was involved from the time the plane was released all the way down to the accident.
“We had expected that the report would tell us who were the officers involved and what role they played until the incident.”
Kaiyatsa said the indication that the plane was well-serviced and was in good condition contradicted a preliminary report by the German experts who indicated that the plane was not in good condition and that some vital equipment were missing.
In a separate interview, Church and Society Programme executive director Moses Mkandawire said there was need to state the key terms of reference that were provided for the commission.
On the other hand, National Advocacy Platform chairperson Benedicto Kondowe said they needed to go through the report to understand it fully.
However, he commended the establishment of the Commission of Inquiry and the subsequent release of its findings.
The commission on Saturday made public the findings of its investigation which, among other s , established that the accident was due to bad weather and other human factors
