Ex-Army chief turns on Police boss Luhanga to face crash probe — While clearing his own name

Malawi’s former military commander has thrown a fresh curveball into the parliamentary inquiry investigating the Chikangawa plane crash, demanding that police chief Richard Luhanga be dragged before the committee to answer tough questions — while simultaneously clearing his own name of any wrongdoing.

General Paul Valentino Phiri, who led the Malawi Defence Force at the time of the tragedy, told the Parliamentary Ad-hoc Committee that current Inspector General of Police Luhanga should be summoned to testify over the search and rescue operation, revealing that Luhanga was serving as the then-Commissioner of Police responsible for the Northern Region when the aircraft went missing.

Phiri didn’t stop there. He also called for the MDF soldiers who first stumbled upon the crash site to be hauled before the committee, so they can explain exactly how they discovered the wreckage, the bodies, and everything else that unfolded in those grim moments.

According to Phiri, he was told a team of MDF soldiers found the site at almost the exact same time as a separate team of police officers — a detail that could prove crucial to reconstructing the timeline of that fateful day.

But the retired general reserved his most pointed remarks for himself and the institution he once led, flatly rejecting any suggestion that he or the MDF had anything to hide.

“Me and MDF are not enemies of the country. We are friends of the country and as such cannot advance evil intention,” Phiri declared, insisting that whatever the military did during the search was carried out entirely in good faith, and urging the committee not to fall for what he called misconceptions about the tragedy.

The aircraft, a Malawi Defence Force Dornier 228 carrying Vice-President Saulos Chilima, former First Lady Patricia Shanil Dzimbiri and seven others, vanished on 10 June 2024 while flying from Lilongwe to Mzuzu, with officials at the time blaming poor visibility for its failure to land.

Wreckage was discovered the following day deep in Chikangawa Forest by MDF soldiers, with all nine on board confirmed dead — a tragedy that triggered a wave of national mourning, an initial Commission of Inquiry, and, more recently, a fresh parliamentary probe ordered by President Peter Mutharika after gaps were identified in earlier investigations, including assessments by German aviation experts.

Phiri himself has already faced pointed questioning in earlier phases of the inquiry.

Former Defence Minister Harry Mkandawire previously told the committee that it was Phiri who called him on the morning of the crash to say the aircraft had turned back to Lilongwe due to bad weather — information that never proved accurate, and which the committee has pressed Phiri to explain the source of.

Mkandawire also told the inquiry that clearance for Chilima to use the ill-fated aircraft had, according to Phiri, come directly from then-President Lazarus Chakwera.

Phiri’s latest appearance forms part of the committee’s third phase of hearings, alongside three other key witnesses: former Acting Director General of the Civil Aviation Authority Samuel Kalua, Civil Aviation’s Director of Aerodromes and Air Navigation Standards Fredrick Chisepeya, and former Deputy Inspector General of Police Operations Akis Muwanga.

The committee is aiming to wrap up this phase of witness interviews by the end of October.