Testimony in the ongoing inquiry into the June 10 2024 military plane crash that killed Vice-President Saulos Chilima and eight others shows that some passengers were not screened contrary to airport security protocols.
Malawi Police Assistant Commissioner Alex Simenti, who was officer-in-charge of airport police at Kamuzu International Airport (KIA) when the aircraft departed for Mzuzu, yesterday told the Parliamentary Ad Hoc Committee investigating the crash that security was generally intact, but acknowledged that some people accompanying Chilima were not screened.
| Jacob Nankhonya
“The entourage of the Vice-President was not searched. These were a few individuals who, by nature of their jobs, were very close to the late Vice-President,” he said, adding that the individuals went directly with Chilima to the apron through the VVIP gate.
Simenti said the situation arose because Chilima was already boarding the aircraft and officers had no time to take the entourage through the screening area.
In his testimony, Simenti also submitted closed circuit television footage from KIA to the committee, but legislators questioned why the footage did not cover all areas that could have shed light on security arrangements that day.
But Simenti maintained that the footage captured the relevant activity around the apron where Chilima and his entourage boarded the aircraft.
Meanwhile, the committee heard that another aircraft was in the vicinity of the Malawi Defence Force (MDF) Dornier aircraft as it travelled towards Mzuzu on the day of the crash.
KIA senior air traffic controller Henry Magombo confirmed that an American-registered aircraft flew from and later returned to KIA on June 10 2024.
His testimony followed questions raised on Wednesday by Mwanza Central legislator Felix Njawala (UTM Party), who said FlightRadar24 data showed another aircraft was almost on the same flight path as the MDF aircraft.
Magombo said records showed the aircraft, whose operators he could not identify, was in Malawi between May and August 2024 on consultancy work linked to the Department of Disaster Management Affairs (Dodma), including research on natural-disaster occurrences.
Committee chairperson Walter Nyamilandu said the committee would engage Dodma to establish the aircraft’s exact mission in Malawi and what it was doing on the day of the crash.
