Airtel and TNM detail phone-tracing efforts after Malawi plane crash

Dramatic new details of the desperate scramble to locate the aircraft carrying former vice-president Saulos Chilima have emerged before Parliament, as former Airtel Malawi managing director Charles Kamoto revealed exactly how officials raced against time to trace phones belonging to those onboard.

Kamoto told the Parliamentary Ad-hoc Committee investigating the Chikangawa crash that he was personally approached by former Secretary to the President and Cabinet Colleen Zamba, alongside former MACRA director general Daud Suleman, who asked Airtel to trace phones belonging to passengers aboard the doomed flight on June 10, 2024.

According to the explosive testimony, Airtel was initially handed the phone numbers belonging to the late vice-president himself and former second lady Mary Chilima — but Kamoto revealed the company was unable to trace any activity whatsoever on Chilima’s own number, while his wife’s phone connected instead to a tower in Area 30, Lilongwe.

The search intensified further at 14:43, when the SPC’s office supplied Airtel with additional numbers belonging to Daniel Kanyemba, Chisomo Chimaneni and Lucas Kapheni — all of whom were among those aboard the ill-fated aircraft.

Kamoto revealed he personally relayed the chilling update that Kanyemba’s phone was ringing but going unanswered, while the remaining numbers could not be reached at all.

Crucially, Kamoto disclosed that Kanyemba’s number had been connecting to a tower at Raiply — a detail that would prove significant in the desperate search operation.

He explained that while Airtel’s systems could not pinpoint the phone’s exact location, the company provided investigators with a sketch map based on the tower’s coverage area in a bid to help narrow down the search zone.

Adding further pieces to the puzzle, TNM official Lloyd Gowera revealed that only two phones linked to passengers aboard the aircraft showed any identifiable last connection to the company’s network towers.

Gowera told the committee the phones belonged to Daniel Kanyemba and Major Aidin, with Major Aidin’s device showing its last connection at the Mzimba turn-off at 11:11 on June 10, 2024 — while Kanyemba’s phone had last connected at Nthungwa Tower at 10:16 that same morning.

Gowera also revealed that TNM had not initially been supplied with the phone numbers of those aboard the aircraft, as the majority were not TNM subscribers.

Instead, the company was forced to rely on its own Know Your Customer (KYC) records on June 11 to identify which phone numbers were registered to individuals named on the aircraft’s passenger manifest.

The dramatic testimony offers the clearest picture yet of the frantic, hour-by-hour telecommunications trail that unfolded as searchers desperately tried to pinpoint the aircraft’s location in the immediate aftermath of its disappearance.