Met chief reveals no weather forecaster was deployed for fatal Chikangawa VVIP flight

The Director of Climate Change and Meteorological Services, Lucy Mtilatila, has told the Parliamentary Ad-hoc Committee investigating the Chikangawa plane crash that her department had no advance knowledge of the fateful June 10, 2024 VVIP flight to Mzuzu — meaning no forecaster was ever sent to support ground operations there.

Giving evidence before the committee, Mtilatila revealed that the forecaster stationed at Kamuzu International Airport also failed to provide crucial weather information to the flight crew, explaining that this was simply because the crew never requested it.

She told MPs that standard procedure dictates a dedicated aviation weather forecaster be deployed ahead of time to both the origin and destination airports whenever a VVIP flight takes place, in order to brief the crew and support operations on the ground.

“If we knew about this flight in advance we would have deployed an aviation meteorological forecaster from KIA to Mzuzu to support the operations on the ground,” Mtilatila told the committee.

Committee chairperson Walter Nyamilandu Manda pressed Mtilatila on why her department had not provided en route weather information for the flight, prompting her to repeat that the department simply had no knowledge the VVIP operation was taking place — making it impossible to prepare any briefing or report in advance.

“So in short we were not aware and that is why we did not provide but otherwise, on that day all the flights that were leaving KIA on that day received the documentation,” Mtilatila said.