LILONGWE-(MaraviPost)-Minister of Justice Charles Mhango has told Malawi’s Parliamentary Ad-hoc committee that he rejects the interim report by German aviation experts on the plane crash that killed Vice President Saulos Chilima.
Mhango said the report was inconclusive on the cause of the accident and left critical questions unanswered.
Appearing before the committee, he outlined his analysis of the inquiry instituted by former president Lazarus Chakwera.
He asked the committee to note that Chakwera had delegated Chilima to represent him at the funeral of Ralph Kasambala on June 10.
Mhango presented a detailed timeline of the planned schedule for the vice president’s travel and the funeral proceedings.
He stated that the aircraft carrying Chilima was scheduled to land in Mzuzu at 10:02 a.m.
From Mzuzu, he said, it would take the vice president between 30 and 35 minutes to reach Nkhata Bay, where the funeral was being held.
According to that schedule, Chilima was expected to arrive in Nkhata Bay at about 10:45 a.m.
However, Mhango pointed to the commission of inquiry report, which recorded that the funeral started at 10:00 a.m. after an announcement that the vice president had been delayed.
He questioned how such an announcement could have been made at 10:00 a.m. when the plane was not due to land in Mzuzu until 10:02 a.m. and still faced a 30- to 35-minute road journey.
Mhango further noted that the announcement was made before the aircraft crashed at 10:16 a.m.
He said that at 10:12 a.m., the pilots or crew made their last contact with Mr. Moyo in Mzuzu.
Yet, he stressed, at 10:00 a.m. in Nkhata Bay an official had already told mourners that the vice president was delayed and that the funeral ceremony should begin.
“This is coming from the commission of inquiry report,” Mhango told the committee.
He faulted the commission for failing to interrogate who authorized the funeral to start at 10:00 a.m. without the vice president, who had been formally delegated to represent the president.
Mhango also said the inquiry did not establish who made the announcement that the vice president had been delayed.
His testimony signals that the parliamentary inquiry into the Chikangawa Forest crash is now focusing sharply on procedural and communication failures in the hours leading up to the tragedy.
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