Intense Search Underway: Malawi Vice President and Former First Lady Missing After Plane Disappearance

An intensive search is underway for a missing military plane carrying Malawi's Vice President Saulos Chilima and former First Lady Shanil Dzimbiri. The aircraft, lost amid poor weather, was en route from Lilongwe to Mzuzu. President Lazarus Chakwera has vowed to continue the search until the plane is found.

Soldiers, police officers, and forest rangers persisted in their efforts on Tuesday to locate a military plane carrying Malawi's Vice President, a former first lady, and eight others, which is believed to have crashed in a mountainous northern region.

The aircraft, transporting 51-year-old Vice President Saulos Chilima and ex-First Lady Shanil Dzimbiri, disappeared on Monday during a brief flight from Lilongwe to Mzuzu. President Lazarus Chakwera revealed that air traffic controllers had advised the plane to return due to bad weather, but contact was lost shortly thereafter.

Involving 600 personnel, the search focuses on a forest plantation in the Viphya Mountains. Authorities are leveraging telecommunications data and drones in the exhaustive operation, which continues as international support pours in.

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