June 10 (UPI) — An aircraft carrying 10 people including the vice president of the African nation of Malawi was reported missing Monday after it failed to make a scheduled landing, the government confirmed.
“All efforts by aviation authorities to make contact with the aircraft since it went off the radar have failed thus far,” according to an official statement by a Malawi government spokesperson before 6 p.m. local time Monday in the capital of Lilongwe.
The Malawi Defense Force aircraft carrying Vice President Saulos Chilima, 51, and nine other individuals took off from Lilongwe at 9:17 a.m. local time Monday morning. It is unclear for now who else was on board.
It was later reporter that the aircraft was possibly a twin turbo-prop Dornier 228 plane.
It was reported as missing after they failed to make a scheduled landing at Mzuzu International Airport in northern Malawi, where the flight occupants were to attend the funeral of a lawyer, Ralph Kasambara.
Local eyewitnesses reported seeing a crash in the Chikangawa forest in central Malawi thought to be the aircraft carrying Chilima, according to The Zimbabwe Mail. But Malawi’s government has not yet confirmed an official crash or a location.
The country’s president, Lazarus Chakwera, canceled a planned trip to the Bahamas and ordered all regional and national agencies to begin an immediate search for the aircraft.
This latest incident involving a government leader on a flight comes weeks after Iran’s now-late President Ebrahim Raisi, 63, died with eight others in a helicopter crash.
This is a developing story. Check back for updates.