In an incident similar to the Iranian president's helicopter, the disappearance of the plane of the Vice President of Malawi raises confusion

The Malawi presidency said on Monday that a military plane carrying Vice President Saulos Klaus Chilima and nine others had disappeared from radar.

The Office of the President and the Council of Ministers stated - in a statement - that "all efforts by the aviation authorities to contact the plane since it disappeared from radar screens have failed so far."

The statement said that Chilima (51 years old) was on board a Malawi Defense Forces plane that left the capital, Lilongwe, at 09:17 local time (07:17 GMT), adding that search and rescue operations are still underway.

The statement said that the plane was scheduled to land at Mzuzu International Airport at 10:02 am.

Malawian President Lazarus Chakwera ordered regional and national forces to conduct an "immediate search and rescue operation to locate the aircraft," and also canceled a planned working visit to the Bahamas.

The mystery of the disappearance of the plane of the Vice President of Malawi still raises confusion about the fate of the senior official and eight others with him, in an incident similar to the helicopter of Iranian President Ibrahim Raisi and his companions before it crashed and killed everyone on board last May 19.

In new details, Malawi President Lazarus Chakwera said that the plane that carried his deputy Saulos Chilima and disappeared belonged to the army.

He explained that it left the capital, Lilongwe, at 7:17 a.m. GMT, but failed to land scheduled 45 minutes later at the Mzuzu International Airport inside the country.

It is noteworthy that Chilima was stripped of his powers in 2022 after he was arrested and charged with graft in a bribery scandal involving a British businessman of Malawian origin.

The Malawi judiciary dropped the charges against Chilima last month after he attended several court sessions.

Source: Agencies