MALAWI’s Vice President, Saulos Chilima, and nine others have been confirmed dead after a military plane carrying them crashed in a mountainous region in the country’s North on Monday, June 10.

President Lazarus Chakwera announced this at a press conference on Tuesday, June 11.

Chakwera noted that the aircraft carrying his deputy went missing after it was unable to land at Mzuzu International Airport, situated approximately 380 kilometres (240 miles) north of Lilongwe, the country’s capital, adding that the wreckage of the plane had been found with no survivors.

“The search and rescue operation I ordered to find the missing plane that carried our Vice President and nine others has been completed.

“The plane has been found. And I am deeply saddened and sorry to inform you that it has turned out to be a terrible tragedy,” he said.

A statement from the President on Monday stated that a Malawi Defence Force aircraft carrying his deputy and nine others went off the radar after it left the capital, Lilongwe, in the morning.

The statement added that soldiers were sent to search with strict orders that the operation should continue until the plane is found. He expressed hope that the survivors would be found.

Also on the plane was the country’s former first lady, Shanil Dzimbiri. There were seven passengers and three military crew members onboard travelling to Mzuzu to attend the funeral of a former government minister, Ralph Kasambara.

Chilima was 51. He was serving his second term as vice president.

In May, The ICIR reported that Iran’s President Ebrahim Raisi died after involving in a helicopter crash.

The helicopter in a convoy was carrying the late President, Foreign Affairs Minister, Hossein Amir Abdollahian, and seven others while they were returning from a ceremony to mark the opening of a dam on Iran’s border with Azerbaijan in the Varzaqan area.