Widow’s claim adds new twist to Chilima crash inquiry

The inquiry into the June 10 military plane crash took a more intimate turn when Taona Aidin, widow of aircraft engineer Major Wales Aidin, told MPs she believes her husband deliberately emptied the aircraft’s fuel tank in the final moments to prevent an explosion.

It was a striking claim — part grief, part technical instinct — rooted in her memory of a man who watched endless aircraft‑investigation programmes and often remarked that an engineer’s job was to “damp fuel.”

Aidin urged the committee to look closely at who her husband last communicated with, suggesting that the final exchanges may hold clues to what happened in the Viphya plantations that morning.

Her intervention touches on a question that has hovered over the inquiry from the start: why the aircraft did not explode, despite carrying enough fuel for the journey.

The German Federal Bureau of Aircraft Accident Investigation has already confirmed the aircraft was refuelled with 483 litres of Jet A1 at Kamuzu International Airport — sufficient for the flight.

And earlier testimony from Captain Henry Nthani, formerly of Zomba Air Base, offered a different technical explanation: pilots are trained to switch off the master electrical switch if a crash becomes inevitable, cutting power and reducing the chance of ignition.

He suggested the crew may have done exactly that, which could explain both the absence of flames and the recoverability of the bodies.

The crash at Nthungwa in Viphya Plantations killed then vice‑president Saulos Chilima and eight others, including former first lady Patricia Shanil Dzimbiri, pilot Colonel Owen Sambalopa, and co‑pilot Major Flora Selemani — a loss that continues to cast a long shadow over the inquiry, and over every testimony that tries to make sense of those final minutes.