Malawi’s Vice President Saulos Chilima and nine other people went missing after the plane did not land on schedule on Monday, CNN reported. The presidential office and cabinet announced in a statement that Chilima and other passengers were on the Malawi Defense Force plane that took off from Lilongwe at 9:17 a.m. local time (3:17 a.m. ET).
According to authorities, the plane was supposed to land at Mzuzu International Airport, which is located approximately 380 km (240 miles) north of Lilongwe, CNN reported. However, it never got there and is no longer in the radar zone. “All efforts by aviation authorities to establish contact with the plane since it left radar have so far failed,” the presidential statement read.
“As such, the Commander of the Malawi Defense Forces, General Valentino Phiri, has since informed His Excellency Dr. Lazarus McCarthy Chakwera of the incident, and the President has since canceled his scheduled departure to the Bahamas and ordered all regional and national agencies to carry out an immediate search and rescue operation to locate the whereabouts of the aircraft,” the statement added. The search operation to locate the aircraft is underway. More details are awaited.
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