10 June 2024 , 21:05
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A plane carrying Malawi’s Vice President Saulos Chilima and nine other people has gone missing after it failed to make a scheduled landing on Monday, according to the presidential office.
The Malawi Defense Force Aircraft carrying Chilima and others left the capital of Lilongwe at 9:17 a.m. local time (3.17 a.m. ET), the presidential office and cabinet said in a statement.
The plane had been scheduled to land at the Mzuzu International Airport, about 380 km (240 miles) to the north of Lilongwe, but did not arrive and is no longer detectable by radar, according to authorities.
“All efforts by aviation authorities to make contact with the aircraft since it went off the radar have failed thus far,” the presidential statement read.
“As such, the commander of the Malawi Defense Force, General Valentino Phiri, has since informed His Excellency Dr. Lazarus McCarthy Chakwera of the incident, and the president has since canceled his scheduled departure for the Bahamas and ordered all regional and national agencies to conduct an immediate search and rescue operation to locate the whereabouts of the aircraft,” the statement added.