Rescuers combed the dense forest in northern Malawi for a second day on Tuesday, searching for a plane carrying the country’s vice president, Saulos Chilima, who disappeared due to bad weather.
The Malawi military plane carrying Mr Chilima and nine other people took off at 9:17 a.m. Monday from the capital, Lilongwe. He was headed to Mzuzu, less than an hour’s flight away, according to the government.
The plane was unable to land due to poor visibility caused by bad weather, President Lazarus Chakwera said in a televised address Monday night. The pilot was instructed to turn back, but a few minutes later the plane disappeared from radar.
Malawi authorities launched a massive rescue operation that continued throughout the night in the Chikangawa Forest, an uninhabited reserve covering approximately 443 square miles.
On Tuesday morning, General Paul Phiri of the Malawi Defense Forces said almost 200 soldiers were involved in the search, which has been hampered by thick fog. Police officers, park rangers and Civil Aviation Authority employees also participated in the effort, he said at a news conference.
“Our troops were on the ground all night and despite these challenges, they are moving forward,” General Phiri said.
Malawi authorities have also asked other governments for help. The US embassy in Lilongwe said it had loaned a C-12 aircraft to help in the search, while Chakwera said it had asked for technological support from neighboring countries, along with Britain, Norway and Israel. On Tuesday morning, the Malawi Red Cross joined the search effort.
Chilima, 51, is expected to run for president in the 2025 elections.
He entered Malawi’s political scene a decade ago, leaving his position as director of one of the country’s largest telecommunications companies in a successful presidential election campaign as Peter Mutharika’s running mate in 2014.
The two had a falling out in 2019, when Chilima accused Mutharika of corruption and founded his own political party, the United Transformation Movement.
Chakwera and Chilima, once political rivals, formed a coalition that year after losing an election marred by irregularities. The two candidates successfully contested the result and, after a judicial panel ruled in their favour, the two men won a second vote which was held in 2020 with the same list.
In late 2022, Chilima was arrested by the country’s Anti-Corruption Bureau on charges of receiving bribes from a businessman in exchange for government contracts. He denied any wrongdoing.
Malawi authorities dropped the case and dropped all charges against Chilima last month, but the scandal has tarnished his image as a politician who had sworn to clean up corruption.