By Kenneth Bwanali
LILONGWE-(MaraviPost)-Testimony by senior air traffic controller Henry Tendel Magombo has left the Parliamentary Ad-hoc Committee investigating the Chikangawa plane crash with fresh questions over what air traffic control knew about the aircraft’s position, weather conditions and communications before it disappeared.
Magombo, who was a senior air traffic controller at Kamuzu International Airport at the time, told the committee that the Malawi Defence Force (MDF) aircraft was initially in radar and radio contact with Lilongwe before communication was eventually lost.
However, his testimony did not fully explain several critical issues surrounding the final stages of the flight.
One of the biggest questions concerns weather information.
Magombo told the committee that the aircraft received surface weather information at Kamuzu International Airport and that weather information could also be obtained from Mzuzu.
But the committee’s questioning exposed a gap over exactly what weather information was communicated to the pilots about the conditions along their route and at Mzuzu.
The issue becomes more significant because Magombo acknowledged that an air traffic controller should not simply rely on an official visibility figure if their own observation shows significantly different conditions.
This leaves the committee needing to establish what the actual visibility was at the relevant time, what ATC observed, what the official meteorological report recorded and whether any deterioration was communicated to the crew.
Another unresolved issue is the aircraft’s last confirmed position.
The committee questioned Magombo about the possibility of an aircraft reporting a position that later turns out to be significantly different from its actual location. Magombo said he had never personally experienced a case where an aircraft reported being 20 nautical miles south and was later found to be 20 nautical miles north.
But that did not answer the committee’s central question regarding the Chilima flight.
The inquiry will have to establish independently where the aircraft was when its last reliable radar and radio contact was recorded.
Magombo also explained that radar and radio coverage can be affected by altitude and terrain. He described attempts to re-establish contact with the aircraft through other aircraft and different frequencies after direct communication was lost.
But another question remains: were all applicable communication-failure procedures followed, and can the ATC records show precisely when each action was taken?
The timing is important because Mzuzu later contacted Lilongwe asking whether the aircraft had returned, while Lilongwe itself no longer had radio or radar contact with it.
The committee also raised questions about another aircraft appearing in material showing aircraft movements at Kamuzu International Airport on June 10, 2024.
Magombo could not immediately verify the aircraft from the material presented to him and said he would need to consult official records.
The committee therefore requested official KIA records showing aircraft arrivals and departures on the day, including relevant flight documentation.
Magombo described the tracking application presented to him as non-standard and not an official ATC operational source. But that does not necessarily settle the matter. The issue can be tested against the original airport records.
Those records could help establish whether every aircraft movement at KIA that day is properly accounted for.
The significance of Magombo’s testimony is therefore not necessarily what it proves, but what it leaves investigators having to verify.
The committee still needs clear answers on the aircraft’s last independently confirmed position, the weather information available to and communicated to the crew, the timing of the loss of communication and the actions taken by ATC afterwards.
It also needs to establish whether the official aircraft movement records account for every flight operating from Kamuzu International Airport on the day of the crash.
Until those questions are answered through the operational records, radar data, ATC communications and weather records, important gaps in the sequence of events remain.
Leave a Reply