Chilima fatal flight: Ex-weather chief tells inquiry Mzuzu conditions were “dangerous”

A former officer in charge at Mzuzu Climate Change and Meteorological Station has delivered stark testimony to the Parliamentary Ad-Hoc Committee investigating the Chikangawa plane crash, confirming that weather conditions on the morning of the fatal flight were dangerous for aircraft movements.

Olive Chavunguma told the committee that visibility at Mzuzu Airport stood at just 8 kilometres on the morning of 10 June 2024 — the day the aircraft carrying former Vice-President Saulos Chilima and eight others crashed near Chikangawa.

“Overcast with drizzle and fog” — chilling weather details revealed

Painting a grim picture of conditions on the ground that morning, Chavunguma told the committee: “Generally the weather at Mzuzu airport on that morning was overcast with drizzle and fog in the vicinity.”

Chavunguma went further, revealing that had visibility improved beyond 10 kilometres, her station would have issued the air traffic controller with a special notification indicating improved conditions — a threshold that, by her own account, was never reached that morning.

Her testimony adds further weight to mounting questions over why the flight was permitted to proceed despite what now appears to have been clearly hazardous weather conditions at the airport, as the parliamentary inquiry continues working to establish the full sequence of events that led to the tragedy which claimed the lives of Malawi’s Vice-President and eight others.