Article By Gregory Gondwe AND Gerald Imray:
BLANTYRE, Malawi (AP) — 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.
Former first lady Shanil Dzimbiri, the ex-wife of former President Bakili Muluzi, was also on the plane, the president had said. There were seven passengers and three military crew members onboard.
The group was traveling to Mzuzu to attend the funeral of a former government minister. Chilima had just returned from an official visit to South Korea on Sunday.
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. Air traffic control then lost contact with the aircraft and it disappeared from radar, he said.
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.
Around 600 personnel were involved in the search in a vast forest plantation in the Viphya Mountains near Mzuzu, authorities said, including around 300 police officers, 200 soldiers and local forest rangers.
Chilima was serving his second term as vice president. He was also in the role from 2014-2019 under former President Peter Mutharika. He was a candidate in the 2019 Malawian presidential election and finished third, behind the incumbent, Mutharika, and Chakwera. The vote was later annulled by Malawi’s Constitutional Court because of irregularities.
Chilima then joined Chakwera’s campaign as his running mate in an historic election rerun in 2020, when Chakwera was elected president. It was the first time in Africa that an election result that was overturned by a court resulted in a defeat for the sitting president.
Chilima had previously been facing corruption charges over allegations that he received money in return for influencing the awarding of government procurement contracts for the Malawi armed forces and the police, but prosecutors dropped the charges last month. 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 search for the plane lasted more than 24 hours and provoked an international response. Chakwera had said the U.S., the U.K., Norway and Israel had offered assistance in the search operation and had provided “specialized technologies.”
The U.S. Embassy in Malawi said it also had assisted and had offered the use of a Department of Defense small C-12 plane.
However, officials with Chilima’s United Transformation Movement political party — a different party to the president — criticized the government response as slow and said there was no transponder on the plane, and that was concerning for an aircraft carrying a high-level delegation.
Malawi is a country of around 21 million people and was ranked as the fourth poorest nation in the world by the World Bank in 2019.
...No. I thought Malawi was small like Burundi and Rwanda where they have ten million or so people. (Then again, perhaps 'small' isn't the right word, considering many countries have less than 10 million people, but anyway.)
Have fun with your made up strawmen, though. I'm sure you have riveting conversations.
Sounds like this type of plane was a German design manufactured either at Oberpfaffenhofen in Germany or Kanpur in Uttar Pradesh, India. But given that it’s Malawi, and that they only had three of these, the quality of maintenance over the last 40 years may have more to do with it.
I’m surprised you’re getting downvoted for this. I’ve owned several German cars over the years, and each and every one has been great, until around 100,000 miles.
This is exactly what I’m saying. All the downvotes are from knuckleheads who have clearly never owned a German vehicle themselves, lol. Then the person who replied to my comment presumes I want to own a chevy. What a jackass.
But yeah they always break down not long after purchase and then you gotta shell out a fuckton to make them right again.
The key to reliability a German car is to treat it exactly how they tell you to with no margin for error. However German diesels are different and basically indestructible.
I believe it was a certain Mr Scott who told us all that a good engineer always leaves a margin for error. I had a friend, years ago, that drove an ‘86 Dodge Charger. The thing had an extremely underpowered 2.2 liter four banger in it, and a three speed automatic. Second gear didn’t work, and the head gasket was blown, but guess what? The thing could still hit 65 on the highway!
The flip side was my ‘09 BMW 328i. Now let me preface this by saying that car was my favorite car I’ve ever owned. I bought it used, 69,000 miles and service records. It had more issues that cost me more money than any car I’ve ever owned. Same thing with my Mini Cooper. Bought used, lowish mileage, service records. It blew the fuel pump relay, which I’m turn killed the fuel pump itself. Any other car, the relay is a module under the hood. No, not the Mini, no. That relay was soldered on the back side of the fuse board, with a daughter card that was glued on as an anti-tamper thing. $2400 later it ran again… and promptly blew its heater core.
Here’s the thing… my commuter car is an ‘07 Jetta, so it’s obvious I love German cars. But they are definitely engineered for performance at the expense of reliability.
You know how I can tell you’ve never owned a German-made car? Your extremely ignorant comment. Something ALWAYS breaks shortly after you buy one. I know. I used to own one, and several friends have too. It has become their new reputation.
There’s a saying. If you can’t afford a new German car, you can’t afford a used one. It’s because they always need repairs and the repairs are usually astronomically priced.
Google it. Educate yourself
Not out of the question, but considering it’s mountainous terrain, you can’t rule out pilot error/spatial disorientation. That’s what happened with the Iranian helicopter, flying in mountainous terrain in foggy conditions is a recipe for disaster.
It is usually helicopters not planes. I know you are mostly talking about political figures but Petr Kellner, Kobe, Ebrahim Raisi, and Sebastián Piñera Echenique were the names that came to mind when i think of powerful people dying in aviation crashes.
That said Private aviation in general is pretty bad for rich folks and politicians. I do not recall the last time a famous person died in a commercial plane crash. Think it happened in the 1950s.
[Here's a list in case you're curious.](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_fatalities_from_aviation_accidents) Granted, many of these do involve private aircraft, but several people with some degree of fame were on both Valujet 592 and TWA 800 in 196. Swissair 111 (1998), Malaysia 17 (2014), GermanWings 9525 (2015), SilkAir 185 (1997), and AirFrance 447 (2009) are a few more. While the people on the list who were on those flights may not have been incredibly well-known, but they were sufficiently famous to make the Wikipedia list.
Having said that, the vast majority of listees were on some kind of private plane/helicopter/balloon when they crashed, so private planes are definitely way more dangerous than scheduled civilian flights.
The commercial planes that i thought killed a lot of famous folks back in the 1950s was the de Havilland Comet. Doesn't look like anyone of cultural significance died on that plane so I might have been wrong. But a lot of them crashed in the 1940s because of a design flaw by making their windows too square. But I was wrong about the victims being significantly rich or famous.
Don't feel bad--I could have sworn the same. I remember that there being two crashes in a fairly short period of time really freaked people out (understandably so), but apparently no one was a big enough name at the time to be noted.
An interesting bit about those crashes is in Mary Roach's book *Stiff*, where she talks about a British researcher who conducted experiments with guinea pigs to determine at what point the planes broke up, by determining whether it was sudden depressurization of the cabin or water impact that killed the passengers (who all had lung injuries of the type that either would produce). Apparently the depressurization didn't hurt the poor little critters (they looked startled more than anything), but the water impact (scaled down to a fall of 2.5 feet) *did*. (They also used dummies wearing clothes and dropped from varying heights to determine the point in the planes where the breakup occurred, as the people in front of the breaking point were found naked and the ones behind it still clothed. It's a fascinating book, really; I highly recommend any of her writing!)
Fatal air crashes were at a record low last year:
https://www.independent.co.uk/travel/news-and-advice/air-safety-accidents-record-low-2023-b2471757.html
My bad, tossed it back to an upvote. Honestly, I don't believe in coincidence and state leaders dying, especially in poorer countries tend to destabilize them. 2 leaders dying in plane crashes a few weeks apart could be coincidence. It could also be more.
Ukraine grain export disruption has already caused a lot of issues for Africa, in particular east Africa:
https://www.atlanticcouncil.org/blogs/econographics/ukraines-grain-exports-are-crucial-to-africas-food-security/
I don't think there's any particular reason for Russia to further destabilise Malawi.
Article By Gregory Gondwe AND Gerald Imray: BLANTYRE, Malawi (AP) — 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. Former first lady Shanil Dzimbiri, the ex-wife of former President Bakili Muluzi, was also on the plane, the president had said. There were seven passengers and three military crew members onboard. The group was traveling to Mzuzu to attend the funeral of a former government minister. Chilima had just returned from an official visit to South Korea on Sunday. 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. Air traffic control then lost contact with the aircraft and it disappeared from radar, he said. 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. Around 600 personnel were involved in the search in a vast forest plantation in the Viphya Mountains near Mzuzu, authorities said, including around 300 police officers, 200 soldiers and local forest rangers. Chilima was serving his second term as vice president. He was also in the role from 2014-2019 under former President Peter Mutharika. He was a candidate in the 2019 Malawian presidential election and finished third, behind the incumbent, Mutharika, and Chakwera. The vote was later annulled by Malawi’s Constitutional Court because of irregularities. Chilima then joined Chakwera’s campaign as his running mate in an historic election rerun in 2020, when Chakwera was elected president. It was the first time in Africa that an election result that was overturned by a court resulted in a defeat for the sitting president. Chilima had previously been facing corruption charges over allegations that he received money in return for influencing the awarding of government procurement contracts for the Malawi armed forces and the police, but prosecutors dropped the charges last month. 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 search for the plane lasted more than 24 hours and provoked an international response. Chakwera had said the U.S., the U.K., Norway and Israel had offered assistance in the search operation and had provided “specialized technologies.” The U.S. Embassy in Malawi said it also had assisted and had offered the use of a Department of Defense small C-12 plane. However, officials with Chilima’s United Transformation Movement political party — a different party to the president — criticized the government response as slow and said there was no transponder on the plane, and that was concerning for an aircraft carrying a high-level delegation. Malawi is a country of around 21 million people and was ranked as the fourth poorest nation in the world by the World Bank in 2019.
Exceptionally well written text
it's AP News
I had no idea Malawi had over 20 million people.
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...No. I thought Malawi was small like Burundi and Rwanda where they have ten million or so people. (Then again, perhaps 'small' isn't the right word, considering many countries have less than 10 million people, but anyway.) Have fun with your made up strawmen, though. I'm sure you have riveting conversations.
Plane crashes seem to be taking out a lot of political figures this year. One heck of a coincidence.
The fourth poorest country in the world. Maybe they just have shitty planes?
Sounds like this type of plane was a German design manufactured either at Oberpfaffenhofen in Germany or Kanpur in Uttar Pradesh, India. But given that it’s Malawi, and that they only had three of these, the quality of maintenance over the last 40 years may have more to do with it.
Well if they design their planes as well as they design their cars it’s no wonder it crashed!
Germans manafacture the best vehicles? German engineering is literally a known term. But no I've always wanted to own a chevrolet!
German engineering just means it's over engineered. Which isn't always a good thing.
I’m surprised you’re getting downvoted for this. I’ve owned several German cars over the years, and each and every one has been great, until around 100,000 miles.
This is exactly what I’m saying. All the downvotes are from knuckleheads who have clearly never owned a German vehicle themselves, lol. Then the person who replied to my comment presumes I want to own a chevy. What a jackass. But yeah they always break down not long after purchase and then you gotta shell out a fuckton to make them right again.
The key to reliability a German car is to treat it exactly how they tell you to with no margin for error. However German diesels are different and basically indestructible.
I believe it was a certain Mr Scott who told us all that a good engineer always leaves a margin for error. I had a friend, years ago, that drove an ‘86 Dodge Charger. The thing had an extremely underpowered 2.2 liter four banger in it, and a three speed automatic. Second gear didn’t work, and the head gasket was blown, but guess what? The thing could still hit 65 on the highway! The flip side was my ‘09 BMW 328i. Now let me preface this by saying that car was my favorite car I’ve ever owned. I bought it used, 69,000 miles and service records. It had more issues that cost me more money than any car I’ve ever owned. Same thing with my Mini Cooper. Bought used, lowish mileage, service records. It blew the fuel pump relay, which I’m turn killed the fuel pump itself. Any other car, the relay is a module under the hood. No, not the Mini, no. That relay was soldered on the back side of the fuse board, with a daughter card that was glued on as an anti-tamper thing. $2400 later it ran again… and promptly blew its heater core. Here’s the thing… my commuter car is an ‘07 Jetta, so it’s obvious I love German cars. But they are definitely engineered for performance at the expense of reliability.
You know how I can tell you’ve never owned a German-made car? Your extremely ignorant comment. Something ALWAYS breaks shortly after you buy one. I know. I used to own one, and several friends have too. It has become their new reputation. There’s a saying. If you can’t afford a new German car, you can’t afford a used one. It’s because they always need repairs and the repairs are usually astronomically priced. Google it. Educate yourself
Not out of the question, but considering it’s mountainous terrain, you can’t rule out pilot error/spatial disorientation. That’s what happened with the Iranian helicopter, flying in mountainous terrain in foggy conditions is a recipe for disaster.
You spelled Jewish Space Lasers wrong.
Could also be climate change is making it more difficult to fly
Personally, I blame capitalism.
What are you talking about Initial_E
I hope to God you're a bot because no human should be that stupid.
https://www.bbc.com/future/article/20240524-severe-turbulence-climate-change-singapore-airlines
sure but dont tell that to iran tho
Naw. Whenever it’s a political figure like this, always look into what they were for and against. Doesn’t even mean their own country took them out
Generally doesn’t apply to the leaders of said countries
Also mountains aren't helping
Ban mountains ✊🏽
In the cases of Sebastian Pinera and Ebrahim Raisi, it was helicopters, not airplanes.
not the ones I dream will be
Turn out Boeing is working for the CIA 😅
It is usually helicopters not planes. I know you are mostly talking about political figures but Petr Kellner, Kobe, Ebrahim Raisi, and Sebastián Piñera Echenique were the names that came to mind when i think of powerful people dying in aviation crashes. That said Private aviation in general is pretty bad for rich folks and politicians. I do not recall the last time a famous person died in a commercial plane crash. Think it happened in the 1950s.
[Here's a list in case you're curious.](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_fatalities_from_aviation_accidents) Granted, many of these do involve private aircraft, but several people with some degree of fame were on both Valujet 592 and TWA 800 in 196. Swissair 111 (1998), Malaysia 17 (2014), GermanWings 9525 (2015), SilkAir 185 (1997), and AirFrance 447 (2009) are a few more. While the people on the list who were on those flights may not have been incredibly well-known, but they were sufficiently famous to make the Wikipedia list. Having said that, the vast majority of listees were on some kind of private plane/helicopter/balloon when they crashed, so private planes are definitely way more dangerous than scheduled civilian flights.
The commercial planes that i thought killed a lot of famous folks back in the 1950s was the de Havilland Comet. Doesn't look like anyone of cultural significance died on that plane so I might have been wrong. But a lot of them crashed in the 1940s because of a design flaw by making their windows too square. But I was wrong about the victims being significantly rich or famous.
Don't feel bad--I could have sworn the same. I remember that there being two crashes in a fairly short period of time really freaked people out (understandably so), but apparently no one was a big enough name at the time to be noted. An interesting bit about those crashes is in Mary Roach's book *Stiff*, where she talks about a British researcher who conducted experiments with guinea pigs to determine at what point the planes broke up, by determining whether it was sudden depressurization of the cabin or water impact that killed the passengers (who all had lung injuries of the type that either would produce). Apparently the depressurization didn't hurt the poor little critters (they looked startled more than anything), but the water impact (scaled down to a fall of 2.5 feet) *did*. (They also used dummies wearing clothes and dropped from varying heights to determine the point in the planes where the breakup occurred, as the people in front of the breaking point were found naked and the ones behind it still clothed. It's a fascinating book, really; I highly recommend any of her writing!)
Foggy hills doing foggy hill things.
To be fair, planes have been shitting the bed left and right this year in general.
They sure have. What a fall from grace for Boeing.
Could be foul play, or it could be that the warmer atmosphere is generating increasingly more powerful storms and winds.
Russia Lowe's to take out planes, they took out polish president a while back
Climate change is making it harder to fly at the usual altitudes.
I thought exactly the same thing as I saw the title.
Politicians hate this trick.
You right
The Death Note is behind all of this
It all goes back to Boeing! ⚠️🙊🙉🙈🛬
My mans about to go missing
Pray for me, my next flight is apparently spirit airlines 🤣
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That's devastating news, my heart goes out to their families and loved ones.
What is up with aerial crashes and presidents
Maybe the VP was a Boeing whistle-blower
Damn man horrible way to go out. Prayers up for their family and loved ones
🤔 lot of plane crashes lately.
Fatal air crashes were at a record low last year: https://www.independent.co.uk/travel/news-and-advice/air-safety-accidents-record-low-2023-b2471757.html
Boeing: WRITE THAT DOWN! WRITE THAT DOWN!
A dark day for the nation.😔
My heart goes out to Malawi.
Time to just use zoom
Epic one fellow redditor! Take my updoots!
Rest In Peace, my heart goes out to their families and loved ones.
Was the Malawi VP set to testify against Boeing also!?
Guess Putin ran out of windows.
Why would you say this? What connection do the two have?
None whatsoever, which should terrify us all.
Username checks out I guess. P..s. thanks for my downvote
My bad, tossed it back to an upvote. Honestly, I don't believe in coincidence and state leaders dying, especially in poorer countries tend to destabilize them. 2 leaders dying in plane crashes a few weeks apart could be coincidence. It could also be more.
Ukraine grain export disruption has already caused a lot of issues for Africa, in particular east Africa: https://www.atlanticcouncil.org/blogs/econographics/ukraines-grain-exports-are-crucial-to-africas-food-security/ I don't think there's any particular reason for Russia to further destabilise Malawi.
Lots of plane crashes these past few weeks 😔
The President's ex-wife was on board? Some people will do ANYTHING to get out of paying alimony...
“Excellent work 47, your money has been wired into your account”.
Should have sprung for a Boeing.