Malawi’s Vice President Saulos Klaus Chilima, along with nine others, including former first lady Shanil Dzimbiri, tragically lost their lives in a military plane crash, President Lazarus Chakwera announced on Tuesday. The plane, carrying Chilima—considered a potential candidate for the next year’s presidential election—went missing on Monday.
In a sombre address to the nation, President Chakwera expressed his deep sorrow: “I’m deeply saddened to inform you all that it has turned out to be a terrible tragedy. The search and rescue team has found the aircraft near a hill, completely destroyed with no survivors.” The aircraft departed from the capital Lilongwe at 09:17 a.m. (0717 GMT) on Monday but failed to land at Mzuzu airport as scheduled at 10:02 a.m. due to poor visibility. It was instructed to return to Lilongwe but subsequently went off the radar, and aviation authorities lost contact with it.
Chakwera confirmed that all passengers on board perished on impact and that the military was in the process of bringing their remains back to the capital. “Despite the track record of the aircraft and the experience of the crew, something terrible went wrong on its flight back to Lilongwe, sending it crashing down and leaving us all devastated,” he said.
Images circulated online show security and rescue personnel at the crash site on a hillside, with debris scattered around the tail of the Dornier 228-202K military transport plane, its tail number MAF T03 still visible.
Chilima, 51, had returned from South Korea on Sunday after attending the Korea-Africa summit and was travelling with the other passengers on Monday morning to attend the funeral of Malawi’s former justice minister in the north of the country. President Chakwera paid tribute to him: “Dr. Saulos Klaus Chilima was a good man, a devoted father and husband, a patriotic citizen who served his country with distinction, and a formidable vice president.”
Before his political career, Chilima was the director of Airtel Malawi. He led the United Transformation Movement party and partnered with Chakwera to form the ruling Tonse Alliance, running as his running mate in their 2020 election victory. However, relations between Chilima and Chakwera had become strained ahead of the 2025 presidential election, where Chilima was expected to challenge the president.
In 2022, Chilima was arrested on graft allegations, but a court dropped the charges last month after the director of public prosecutions filed a notice to discontinue the case. Chilima had denied any wrongdoing.
