President Lazarus Chakwera of Malawi has shelved his trip to the Bahamas after the military aircraft conveying Vice President Saulos Chilima and nine others to the Mzuzu International Airport failed to land. The aircraft’s whereabouts have since remained unknown.

Secretary to the President and Cabinet Colleen Zamba disclosed that “all efforts by aviation authorities to make contact with the aircraft since it went off the radar have failed thus far” in a statement on Monday.

Mr Zamba said the president cancelled his trip to the Bahamas upon learning that his subordinate was missing alongside nine people.

“The Office of the President and Cabinet wishes to inform the general public that the Malawi Defense Force Aircraft that left Lilongwe today, Monday 10th June 2024 at 09:17 Hours, carrying the Vice President, the Right Honourable Dr. Saulos Klaus Chilima, and nine others, failed to make its scheduled landing at Mzuzu International Airport at 10:02,” the statement added.
This comes less than three weeks after Iran’s president, Ebraheem Riasi, died in a helicopter crash at Varzaqan, East Azerbaijan, Iran. 
Foreign minister Hossein Amirabdollahian, East Azarbaijan Province’s Governor Malek Rahmati, and Mehdi Mousavi, the head of Mr Raisi’s guard team, also died in the crashed aircraft.