A search is underway for a missing aircraft carrying the vice president of the southeastern African country of Malawi and nine other people, the country’s government said on Monday.
Vice President Saulos Chilima was traveling on a Malawi Defence Force aircraft that took off at 9:17 a.m. Monday from the capital, Lilongwe.
But it missed a scheduled landing at an airport in the north of the country, less than an hour’s flight away.
The aircraft disappeared from radar and aviation authorities have been unable to establish contact with it.
The vice president was on his way to attend the funeral of the country’s former attorney general, Ralph Kasambara.
But severe weather in Mzuzu, the flight’s destination, prevented the plane from landing, said Lucky Sikwese, an aide in the vice president’s office.
“The Civil Aviation Authority has confirmed that it has not landed at any of the airports,” he said.
Authorities have not located a potential crash site. As darkness fell, military and police officers continued the search by vehicle and on foot but struggled to comb through the thick forests in Malawi’s north, local media reported.
Malawi’s President, Lazarus Chakwera, deployed a search and rescue operation that included both national and regional agencies, the government said in a statement.
Mr. Chakwera also canceled a scheduled trip to the Bahamas, the statement said.
