Malawi crash probe questions missing reports
Malawi’s latest investigation into the military plane crash that killed former vice-president Saulos Chilima has uncovered a critical gap in earlier inquiries: none of the three official investigations reviewed internal reports produced by the institutions responsible for operating and regulating the aircraft.
The disclosure, made by Justice Minister Charles Mhango before Parliament’s ad hoc committee in June 2026, has raised fresh questions about the evidentiary basis of investigations into one of Malawi’s most traumatic national tragedies.
The crash, on 10 June 2024, killed Chilima, former first lady Patricia Shanil Muluzi and seven others aboard a Malawi Defence Force Dornier 228 aircraft travelling from Lilongwe to Mzuzu.
Germany’s Federal Bureau of Aircraft Accident Investigation, known by its German acronym BFU, concluded in 2025 that pilot error caused the accident. Parliament is examining whether investigators had access to all relevant records before reaching that conclusion.
Mhango told lawmakers that his ministry’s review, which informed the government’s decision to establish a fresh parliamentary inquiry earlier this year, was conducted without access to two documents: an internal investigation by the Malawi Defence Force and a separate report prepared by civil aviation authorities.
The institutions were responsible for operating and regulating the aircraft involved in the crash.
Instead, Mhango said, his review relied on the BFU’s interim and final reports, findings from a German organisation involved in the investigation and the report of a presidential commission of inquiry established after the accident.
The Defence Force and civil aviation reports, he said, were not made available to him.
His testimony does not establish why the reports were unavailable, whether they were withheld or whether previous investigations sought access to them. But it has introduced a new line of enquiry into how Malawi investigated a disaster that reshaped the country’s political landscape.
On the morning of 10 June 2024, a Malawi Defence Force Dornier 228, registration MAF-T03, departed Kamuzu International Airport in Lilongwe at 9.17am. On board were Chilima, Muluzi and seven others travelling to Mzuzu to attend the funeral of former attorney-general Ralph Kasambara.
The aircraft never reached its destination.
Its wreckage was discovered the next day in Chikangawa Forest Reserve in Nkhata Bay District. All nine people on board were confirmed dead.
Germany’s BFU was appointed lead technical investigator. Its interim report, released in August 2024, found that the aircraft did not have a cockpit voice recorder or a flight data recorder.
Investigators also established that the aircraft’s emergency locator transmitter was not functioning because its battery had expired in 2004, two decades before the crash.
According to the BFU, the Malawi Defence Force told investigators that spare parts for the transmitter were unavailable and no budget had been allocated to replace the unit or install a newer device.
The interim report further noted that radar coverage along the aircraft’s route was limited and radio communications between the crew and air traffic controllers in Lilongwe and Mzuzu were not recorded.
The limitations complicated efforts to reconstruct the aircraft’s final moments.
The BFU’s final report, published on 6 October 2025, attributed the crash to pilot error. Investigators concluded that the crew continued flying under instrument meteorological conditions in circumstances requiring visual flight rules.
The report identified three additional human factors, including aspects of crew performance and mental state, as contributing to the accident.
The aircraft, manufactured in 1987, had accumulated 3 492 flight hours at the time of the crash.
Yet the BFU’s findings have not resolved broader questions about institutional accountability and aircraft maintenance.
Appearing before Parliament, Mhango said he found aspects of the BFU report unsatisfactory, particularly its treatment of the absence of flight-recording equipment.
“I find the BFU report to be wanting and hard to bring closure,” he told the committee.
Mhango said investigators should have established whether the aircraft had been manufactured without cockpit voice and flight data recorders or whether the systems had been removed after the Malawi Defence Force acquired it.
That question remains unanswered in the public record.
Its significance extends beyond technical detail. Determining whether the aircraft was originally equipped with recording devices and whether regulations required them, bears directly on questions of procurement, maintenance standards and oversight of aircraft used to transport senior government officials.
The available record nevertheless points to long-standing equipment deficiencies.
The BFU reported that the emergency locator transmitter’s battery had expired in 2004 and that the Defence Force acknowledged it lacked the spare parts and budget needed to rectify the defect.
As a result, the aircraft was operating without a functioning emergency locator transmitter and without cockpit voice or flight data recording systems capable of assisting investigators after an accident.
Whether the deficiencies breached applicable standards or reflected broader institutional failures remains unresolved.
A presidential commission of inquiry, established by then-president Lazarus Chakwera in October 2024 and chaired by Justice Jabbar Alide, completed its work two months later.
Its public summary found no evidence of foul play and concluded that a combination of human and environmental factors contributed to the crash.
The findings did not end public speculation.
Archbishop Thomas Luke Msusa told worshippers during Christmas Eve Mass in 2024 that the full truth about the tragedy had not been disclosed, while civil society organisations called for publication of the commission’s complete report.
Among the most vocal groups was the Centre for Democracy and Economic Development Initiatives (CDedi). In January 2026, the organisation wrote to President Peter Mutharika demanding a fresh probe, arguing that only a new and credible investigation could restore public confidence.
CDedi later urged Parliament to examine the circumstances surrounding Kasambara’s death and the actions of security agencies before and after the crash.
The parliamentary inquiry convened in 2026 has widened the scope of issues under examination.
Mhango told lawmakers that Kasambara’s death and the crash that killed Chilima, which occurred about 72 hours apart, could warrant examination within a broader investigative framework.
Kasambara, a former attorney-general who had previously been convicted of conspiracy to murder, was found dead at a lodge in Lilongwe on 7 June 2024. A preliminary autopsy attributed his death to heart failure. Police said drugs and alcohol were found in the room where his body was discovered.
Mhango did not present evidence linking Kasambara’s death to the plane crash.
Rather, he argued that previous investigations might have been too narrowly framed and suggested that corruption proceedings previously brought against Chilima, which were discontinued in May 2024, should not necessarily be viewed in isolation from other events of that period.
The minister also referred to witness accounts alleging gunshots near the crash site and reports that unidentified individuals might have been present before official rescue teams arrived.
The claims remain unsubstantiated.
No documentary evidence in the public domain corroborates reports of gunshots or identifies the individuals allegedly seen near the scene. The allegations have nevertheless entered the parliamentary record through Mhango’s testimony and might form part of the committee’s continuing inquiry.
The committee and how it emerged
The latest inquiry was initiated in February 2026 after President Mutharika, who returned to office after the September 2025 general election, ordered a fresh investigation based on Mhango’s review of gaps in three previous reports.
The initial committee was reconstituted in March 2026 after a political dispute over participation. The Malawi Congress Party initially declined to join before reversing its position after what Speaker Sameer Suleman described as a “fruitful meeting”.
The 13-member committee includes representatives from the governing Democratic Progressive Party, the Malawi Congress Party, the United Transformation Movement, the People’s Party, the United Democratic Front and independent legislators.
Walter Nyamilandu Manda, the legislator for Nsanje South, was elected chair, while Zomba City South legislator James Mpunga became his deputy.
Nyamilandu pledged a fair and transparent inquiry.
“The last report showed gaps and inconsistencies and our task is to close those gaps so that the truth must prevail,” he said.
The committee’s work proceeds along three tracks: a health, safety, security and environmental audit of aviation systems and operations; a forensic audit intended to establish facts and uncover new information; and post-mortem examinations involving the exhumation of victims’ remains.
The post-mortem process represents one of the most significant departures from previous investigations, as forensic standards were not fully applied when the bodies were recovered in 2024.
More than 150 witnesses connected to the aircraft or flight have been identified, with testimony heard in both private and public sessions.
The committee began field investigations in May 2026, visiting Kamuzu International Airport, the crash site in Nthungwa, Viphya Plantation, Mzuzu Airport and the location where the aircraft wreckage is being stored.
New disclosures from public hearings
Public hearings began at Parliament in Lilongwe on 17 June and are scheduled to continue until 26 June.
Among the first witnesses were Mhango and two senior officials from the Office of the Vice-President, whose testimony provided new details about the events preceding the flight.
Eric Yesaya, the principal secretary for administration in the Office of the Vice-President, told lawmakers that Chilima had initially decided not to attend Kasambara’s funeral.
The original plan was for Mary Chilima, the vice-president’s wife, to represent him while he remained in Lilongwe to fulfil official duties, including seeing off then-president Chakwera on a trip to the Bahamas.
That changed on the evening of 9 June 2024, when Yesaya said he was informed that Chilima had decided to travel personally.
Former secretary to the Office of the Vice-President Luckie Sikwese testified that he facilitated the booking of the Defence Force aircraft after learning it had been reserved by Kasambara’s family to transport relatives to Nkhata Bay.
Sikwese said he obtained the family’s consent and proceeded to arrange the vice-president’s travel.
He also confirmed that no formal memorandum seeking presidential approval for the aircraft was submitted on 9 June, as would ordinarily be required.
Instead, Sikwese said he contacted the Malawi Defence Force commander directly and was informed that the aircraft could be made available, provided the number of passengers was reduced to eight.
Several individuals were subsequently removed from the passenger list, among them Chilima’s aides Emily Chinthu Phiri and Winnie Nyondo, as well as Sikwese.
Sikwese said he remained behind to complete authorisation paperwork.
He further testified that secretary to the government Colleen Zamba contacted him to ask whether MP Richard Chimwendo Banda could travel on the aircraft. He informed her that no seats were available.
The testimony portrays hurried coordination, incomplete paperwork and last-minute decisions in the hours before departure.
Sikwese said he remained in contact with Chilima until 10.01am on 10 June and that a final WhatsApp message sent at 11.37am went unanswered.
“Should I have done something differently? Maybe I should have lied to him and created a story that would have brought him back. That is the reason I wrote that message,” he told the committee.
Questions of accountability
The nine people who died in Chikangawa Forest included Malawi’s constitutionally designated second-in-command, a former first lady, military personnel and support staff.
Nearly two years later, many questions surrounding their deaths remain unresolved.
Mary Nkhamanyachi Chilima, the late vice-president’s widow, publicly called for a comprehensive investigation in September 2024 and has since thanked Mutharika for ordering the fresh inquiry, saying the family was prepared to testify if invited.
The crash also drew international involvement. Germany led the technical investigation, while the US, UK, Norway and Israel assisted search operations.
The BFU’s final report remains the most comprehensive technical account of the disaster.
Yet Parliament’s inquiry has highlighted what lawmakers and government officials describe as gaps in the available evidence and renewed scrutiny of records that might never have been examined.
Whether the Malawi Defence Force and civil aviation authorities ultimately provide their internal reports to Parliament could become one of the defining issues of the committee’s work.
If the documents are produced, lawmakers might gain a fuller understanding of how the crash was investigated and whether important evidence was overlooked.
If they are not, Malawi’s search for answers might continue to rely on an evidentiary record that Parliament itself regards as potentially incomplete.
Collins Mtika is a veteran journalist and the Mail & Guardian’s special correspondent in Mzuzu, Malawi. This article was produced in partnership with the Centre for Investigative Journalism Malawi — www. investigative-malawi.org.
