Malawi: Chilima Crash Inquiry - Plane Crashed After Severe Weather Warning, Expired Locator System and Resource Strain Revealed
Fresh testimony before Parliament has raised troubling questions about the circumstances surrounding the military flight that claimed the life of former Vice-President Saulos Chilima and eight others, revealing that the aircraft had battled severe weather just a day before the disaster and was operating without a functioning emergency locator system that could have sped up rescue efforts.
Appearing before the Parliamentary Ad-hoc Committee investigating the June 10, 2024 Chikangawa plane crash, Zomba Air Base Commander Colonel Alex Mwachande disclosed that the Dornier aircraft had already encountered what its crew described as "very bad weather" during a flight to Mzuzu on June 9 after transporting the remains of lawyer Ralph Kasambara.
The aircraft departed Chileka International Airport at 4:00 p.m. and landed in Mzuzu at about 5:32 p.m. Although the crew reported the hazardous weather conditions they had experienced, Mwachande admitted that the information was not passed on to the Office of the Vice-President before the same aircraft was assigned another high-profile mission.
Instead, with only one available aircraft at Zomba Air Base, the military deployed the same plane to transport Chilima and his delegation the following morning.
"The information that there was bad weather was not directly relayed to the Office of the Vice-President, but it was relayed within our institution," Mwachande told lawmakers.
The testimony paints a picture of an Air Force operating under mounting pressure. Mwachande revealed that on June 10 there were simultaneous demands for aircraft, including a request to transport troops returning from the Democratic Republic of Congo. He said national demand for air assets had grown significantly over the years without corresponding investment in aircraft or personnel.
That imbalance, he told the committee, became painfully apparent when authorities scrambled to mount search and rescue operations after the Vice-President's plane disappeared.
Even more striking was Mwachande's disclosure that the aircraft's Emergency Locator Transmitter (ELT)--a critical device designed to automatically emit distress signals after a crash--had long ceased to function.
According to his testimony, the ELT battery had expired years earlier, with the problem dating back as far as 2006. The manufacturer no longer produced replacement units for that model and instead advised the Malawi Defence Force to purchase an entirely new package incorporating the ELT, flight data recorder, cockpit voice recorder and other black box components.
But the upgrade never happened.
Mwachande told the committee that financial constraints prevented the Defence Force from acquiring the replacement system, leaving the aircraft without an operational emergency beacon that could have helped search teams pinpoint its location more rapidly after the crash.
Questioned by lawmakers, he acknowledged the importance of the device, explaining that a functioning ELT is specifically intended to transmit a signal after an aircraft goes down, allowing rescuers to locate it quickly.
The commander nevertheless insisted that the aircraft had undergone maintenance inspections and had been certified fit for flight before embarking on its final mission. He admitted it had previously developed a fault but said engineers had rectified the issue before issuing a report clearing it for operations.
Mwachande also recounted the tense moments after the aircraft vanished from radar. On the morning of June 10, he received a call from an operations officer informing him that the plane carrying the Vice-President and eight others had failed to arrive at its destination.
A meeting was immediately convened at Zomba Air Base, where officials agreed to notify the families that the aircraft had gone missing.
The parliamentary inquiry continues as lawmakers seek answers over one of Malawi's deadliest aviation disasters, examining whether operational decisions, ageing equipment, funding shortages and communication failures may have contributed to the tragedy that shocked the nation.
This article originally appeared on Nyasa Times.