Today marks exactly two years and three days since the tragic events of June 10 2024, when a Malawi Defence Force (MDF) Dornier 228 aircraft crashed in the unforgiving terrain of the Chikangawa Forest in Nkhata Bay District.
The disaster claimed the lives of nine people, including former Vice-President Saulos Klaus Chilima.
Over this period, two prior investigative reports—one by a local Commission of Inquiry and another by Germany’s Federal Bureau of Aircraft Accident Investigation (BFU)—have failed to unite the nation. Instead, these initial efforts left Malawians deeply divided. The debate has persistently seasawed between accepting the narrative of a purely tragic accident and entertaining theories of darker, politically motivated foul play.
The administration of President Peter Mutharika took a decisive step, responding to lingering public scepticism by sanctioning Parliament to institute a fresh, ad-hoc committee of inquiry. This committee already began its work, including on-site inspections in the Northern Region.
But as the nation watches this new probe unfold, several critical questions remain: Why did the DPP administration discard the first two reports? What glaring holes did the inquiry reports contain? And most importantly, should Malawians expect anything genuinely new this time around? Or is this all just politicking?
To understand the scepticism, one must look closely at the “shortcomings” of the initial investigations. The first government-appointed commission of inquiry produced a technical report that some critics found heavily weighted with aviation jargon but entirely devoid of accountability. Crucially, it did not comprehensively explain the discrepancy between President Lazarus Chakwera’s initial public addresses and the timeline of the aircraft’s movements.
Similarly, the preliminary and final findings issued by the German BFU experts exposed significant red flags, which the Justice Ministry flagged upon review. The reports revealed that the ill-fated military plane was operating without a functional Cockpit Voice Recorder (CVR) and Flight Data Recorder (FDR).
Furthermore, the aircraft’s Emergency Locator Transmitter (ELT) battery had expired in 2004, meaning it had been legally not airworthy for two long decades prior to this flight. While these technical failures pointed heavily toward gross systemic negligence on the part of the military, they did little to extinguish public suspicions regarding human intervention.
The conflicting accounts of whether air traffic control explicitly ordered the plane to turn back due to bad weather added fuel to the fire. For some families and grieving citizens, a report highlighting institutional failure did not automatically rule out political assassination.
In response to these gaps and public outcry, President Mutharika directed the Minister of Justice and Constitutional Affairs to conduct a comprehensive review of the past documents. The conclusion was unequivocal: the previous investigations left vital questions unanswered.
Consequently, a 13-member Parliamentary Ad-Hoc Committee—drawn from a cross-section of political parties, including the DPP, MCP, UDF, and UTM—was mandated to conduct a new, independent investigation.
Malawians should indeed expect different outcomes from this current parliamentary inquiry. Unlike the closed-door processes of the past, the ad-hoc committee led by chairperson Walter Nyamilandu-Manda has taken a more transparent, hands-on approach.
The committee has already conducted physical inspections of the crash site and at Kamuzu International Airport. Moreover, they have actively planned public hearings starting next week, inviting key witnesses ranging from family members to MDF officials. The Speaker has even directed that the team be given the latitude to revisit and challenge previous findings.
Most ambitiously, the renewed parliamentary inquiry into the tragic military plane crash has ordered forensic exhumations of the victims. This critical step aims to conduct post-mortem examinations that were shockingly omitted when the bodies were initially recovered.
The autopsy will validate or challenge previous inquiry reports, which had cited weather and human error as the primary crash causes.
But forensic experts warn that examining remains buried for nearly two years could critically compromise the recovery of toxicological and medical evidence.
Coincidentally, this forensic development comes as the family of the former Vice President commemorates his legacy. A high-profile tombstone unveiling ceremony for Chilima and dedication of his mausoleum takes place today at his burial site in Nsipe, Ntcheu.
Ultimately, whether this parliamentary probe is viewed as mere political gymnastics or a genuine quest for justice depends entirely on the transparency of the process. The investigation is a profound test of whether the State can independently and forensically examine its own military and political systems.
As the committee compiles its findings, it carries the heavy burden of providing closure to a traumatised nation. Malawians deserve an empirical, unvarnished account of what truly caused the Chikangawa crash. One can only hope that this third inquiry will be the charm, finally resolving the troubling issues that have cast a long, dark shadow over the country’s public life.
