BLANTYRE, Malawi — A military plane carrying Malawi’s vice president and nine other people went missing on Monday and a search was underway, the president’s office said.
The plane carrying Vice President Saulos Chilima, 51, left the capital, Lilongwe, but failed to land at Mzuzu International Airport, about 370 kilometers (230 miles) to the north, about 45 minutes later.
Aviation authorities lost contact with the plane when it “went off radar,” according to the statement from Malawi President Lazarus Chakwera’s office. Chakwera ordered a search operation and canceled a trip to the Bahamas, his office said.
“All efforts to establish contact with the aircraft since it left radar have so far failed,” the statement said.
Chakwera was informed of the plane’s disappearance by General Valentino Phiri, head of Malawi’s armed forces. The president had ordered national and local authorities “to conduct an immediate search and rescue operation to locate the whereabouts of the aircraft,” his office said.
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