LILONGWE-(MaraviPost)-One of the country’s rights activists Chimwemwe Mbeya Mhango Ntchindi has lauded Parliamentary Committee on fresh inquiry for the Chikangawa Forest plane crash for setting up credible standards in the exercise.
Mhango observes that the committee is on the right path with clear agenda in the probe.
The activist is reacting after the committee completed its site visit of the plane crash at Nthungwa in the week.
But Mhango has urged the committee to remain focused and professional for credible results.
“It’s our expectation as citizens that the committee will deliver as the probe has started on a good note.
“We don’t want any political interference during the entire exercise that the nation gets real answers on the accident that killed important people in our society”, urges Mhango.
How the activist wants the committee to focus on how former governing Malawi Congress Party (MCP) played a role in the accident.
“Fair enough, MCP had all the opportunity to do a proper investigation of the plane crash. The only option they had was to be honest and investigate on the following areas: Why a plane carrying Vice President flew without a recorder, and hold someone accountable. Who told the president the plane Chikangawa when it had not, and hold him accountable
“Why MCP ministers, Zikhale, Chimwendo, Mkandawire who were in Nkhatabay (same district of accident) never dared to reach the scene. Why did the president order 4 hours not 1 hour to get a report? Why did the president cancel searching at 6 O’clock when our soldiers had capacity of searching 24/7”, queries the activist.
He suggests further, “Why did the army general lie to the nation that the plane had crashed into a very thick inhabited and unreachable forest when he knew clearly we had no such a forest in Malawi?
“Why did all ministers (Zikhale, Chimwendo and Mkandawire) who attended burial of Ralph Kasambara drove by road and did not escort the Vice President to Mzuzu when few days earlier ministers of MCP escorted the same Vice President to Korea in the same plane, WHY WERE THEY NOT PART OF THE TRIP THIS TIME. Coincidence? Wow!”.
Mhango queries more, “Phones in the plane registered through the tower as the last signal they splashed, was there any reason of not sending enough soldiers to circle-search the radius around the tower? How did the plane fly in most difficult weather in the early hours at 7 am and fail even just to turn around and go back to Lilongwe at 10 am? My experience with fog, it gets better kukamacha.
“Why was the Vice President allocated this plane, was it the only one, the best option, or what? Unfortunately, MCP did their investigation and told us that the cause of the accident was that the co-pilot license had expired by the time of the accident. Looks like planes watch the expiry dates of the licences when flying”.
Walter Nyamilandu Manda is leading the Parliamentary Committee on the fresh inquiry.
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