The military plane carrying Malawi vice president Saulos Chilima has been declared missing, the government said, NOVA reported, citing on BGNES.
„All efforts by aviation authorities to establish contact with the aircraft since it disappeared from radar have so far been unsuccessful,” the government said in a statement.
The plane, which took off shortly after 9:00 a.m. local time (07:00 GMT), was carrying 51-year-old Chilima and nine other people.
President Lazar Chakwera has ordered regional and national forces to conduct an “immediate search and rescue operation to locate the plane”, the statement said.
Chakwera, who was scheduled to travel to the Bahamas on a working visit, subsequently canceled his trip.
In 2022, Chilima was stripped of his powers when he was arrested and charged with bribery in connection with a bribery scandal involving a British-Malawian businessman. Last month, a Malawian court dropped the charges after Chilima attended several court hearings.