The wreckage of the military plane was located in a mountainous area in the north of the country after a search that lasted more than a day.

Malawi’s vice president, Saulos Chilima, was among 10 people killed when a small military plane crashed in a mountainous region in the north of the country, the the president said Tuesday. Chilima was 51.

President Lazarus Chakwera announced in a live address on state television that the wreckage of the plane had been located after a search of more than a day in thick forests and hilly terrain near the northern city of Mzuzu. Chakwera said there were no survivors of the crash.

  • @elliot_craneEnglish
    16•5 months ago

    I’m not a conspiracy theorist or suggesting that there’s any connection between these events, but does anyone else find it kind of nuts how two notable government officials have died in aviation accidents this year?

    • @[email protected]English
      41•5 months ago

      Nope, don’t fly in any aircraft more than twenty years old in a developing country in bad weather.

      Conspiracy theories can be fun, that doesn’t make them truthy though.

      Questionable pilot training and aircraft maintenance on old aircraft in adverse conditions.

      I have piloted junk where the Pilot in Command said ‘take over’. Look at the instruments, ‘hmm, altimeter, variometer, artificial horizon, compass are FUBAR’ , 'how am I navigating? ‘Watch the hills, here’s my phone, I use google maps’.

        • @[email protected]English
          24•5 months ago

          Honduras.

          Initially the pilot seemed fine (for central america at least). Then he started nodding off and asked me if I could fly. My partner at the time dug a bottle of rum out of her bag and asked if we were going to die.

          When I found the airport with a few jets on the ground I buzzed it because the radio worked intermittently.

          It was kinda fun, my first landing. The pilot was still out when some unhappy looking people with sidearms showed up. There were three other passengers (I didn’t know them) they also didn’t seem very happy. I thought I did pretty good, no fire, nothing broken that wasn’t broken previously.

          Makes for a good story years later, but if the aircraft looks like it’s in worse shape than an '87 Hyundai my advice is to not fly in it.

  • AutoTL;DRBEnglish
    6•5 months ago

    This is the best summary I could come up with:

    President Lazarus Chakwera announced in a live address on state television that the wreckage of the plane had been located after a search of more than a day in thick forests and hilly terrain near the northern city of Mzuzu.

    Hundreds of soldiers, police officers and forest rangers had been searching for the plane after it went missing Monday morning while making the 45-minute flight from the southern African nation’s capital, Lilongwe, to Mzuzu, around 370 kilometers (230 miles) to the north.

    Air traffic controllers told the plane not to attempt a landing at Mzuzu’s airport because of bad weather and poor visibility and asked it to turn back to Lilongwe, Chakwera said in an address late Monday night.

    The president described the aircraft as a small, propeller driven plane operated by the Malawian armed forces.

    The tail number he provided shows it is a Dornier 228-type twin propeller plane that was delivered to the Malawian army in 1988, according to the ch-aviation website that tracks aircraft information.

    He had denied the allegations, but the case led to criticism that Chakwera’s administration was not taking a hard enough stance against graft.

    The original article contains 622 words, the summary contains 191 words. Saved 69%. I’m a bot and I’m open source!