The military aircraft carrying Vice President Saulos Chilima left the capital, Lilongwe but failed to make landing.

Lilongwe: The military aircraft carrying 51-year-old Vice President Saulos Chilima left the capital, Lilongwe. However, it couldn't land at Mzuzu International Airport, about 370 kilometers (230 miles) to the north, around 45 minutes later. Search is in progress, Malawi’s presidency said on Monday.

“All efforts by aviation authorities to make contact with the Aircraft since it went off the radar have failed thus far,” Malawi’s Office of the President and Cabinet said in a statement.

The military aircraft carrying 51-year-old Vice President Saulos Chilima took off from the capital, Lilongwe shortly after 9:00 am local time (0700 GMT). However, it couldn’t land at Mzuzu International Airport, about 370 kilometers (230 miles) to the north, around an hour later at 10.02 am.

The statement from Malawian President Lazarus Chakwera’s office said that aviation authorities lost contact with the aircraft when it “went off radar,”. The President ordered regional and national forces to carry out immediate search operation and cancelled an official trip to the Bahamas.

Chakwera was informed of the missing plane by Gen. Valentino Phiri, the head of the Malawian armed forces. Chakwera has directed national and local authorities to “conduct an immediate search and rescue operation to locate the whereabouts of the aircraft”.

In 2022, Chilima faced charges of corruption for a bribery scandal which involved a UK-Malawian businessman and was stripped of his delegated powers. In May, all charges against him were dropped by a Malawian court following several court appearances by the Vice President. Earlier, Chilima has served as minister for disaster relief and public events. He is also a member of the Leadership Council for Compact 2025, which aims at providing evidence-based guidance to policymakers and leaders to root out hunger and undernutrition by 2025.

In May, a helicopter carrying Iranian President Ebrahim Raisi and Foreign Minister Hossein Amirabdollahian, among other officials, crashed as it was crossing mountainous terrain in heavy fog. Raisi was travelling in Iran’s East Azerbaijan province when the accident happened.

(With Agency Inputs)