Malawi’s Vice President Dr. Saulos Chilima died along with nine others in a plane crash

Johannesburg — Malawi’s Vice President Dr. Saulos Chilima and nine other people were killed when the plane they were travelling in crashed in the Chikangawa mountain range, the government said on Tuesday. President Lazarus Chakwera declared Tuesday a national day of mourning. It later became unclear whether Chilima’s wife, Mary, was also on board the plane when it crashed, as the government initially claimed.

“Unfortunately, all persons on board were killed in the crash,” said a statement from the Office of the President and Cabinet on Tuesday morning. The confirmation came after a search operation lasting more than a day in a forest area in the mountains of northern Malawi. The military aircraft crashed on Monday morning after taking off from the country’s capital Lilongwe.

Chilima, 51, and the other passengers were on their way to the funeral of the country’s former attorney general when their plane disappeared from radar. Air traffic control officials said the plane had been unable to land at Mzuzu airport, about 320 kilometers north of the capital, due to poor visibility and the pilot had been advised to return to Lilongwe when the flight disappeared.

In an address to the nation on Tuesday, Chakwera said Chilima was with seven military officers and two other passengers in a small military plane, which the Associated Press said was a Dornier 228 twin-engine propeller plane delivered to the Malawian army in 1988. AP determined this information by comparing the plane’s tail number provided by Chakwera with data from the website ch-aviation.

Some Malawian sources told CBS News later Tuesday that Chilima’s wife was not on board the plane, but the government did not immediately provide any information on her whereabouts or condition.

Chilima, 51, was considered a possible candidate in Malawi for next year’s presidential elections.

He is a somewhat controversial figure and was arrested in 2022 on corruption charges after reports that he received bribes from a businessman for government contracts.

Chilima denied the charges until last month, when prosecutors dropped them and filed a motion to dismiss the case.

In a televised address to the nation on Monday evening, Chawera told the nation that the search and rescue operation would continue until Chilima’s plane was found.

“I know this is a heartbreaking situation,” he said, “and we are all scared and worried.”

Several countries, including the United States, provided technological support for the search operation.

In a statement posted on social media on Tuesday morning, the U.S. Embassy in Lilongwe expressed “deep concern at the news of the crash” and offered “all available assistance, including a Department of Defense C-12 aircraft.”