“We Kept Searching, But Found No One Alive” — MDF and Police Recount Painful Hunt for Crashed Plane in Viphya Forest

The search started with urgency and hope, but ended in silence, confusion, and heartbreak deep in the dense Viphya Plantation. For hours on June 10 and 11, 2024, soldiers from the Malawi Defence Force (MDF) and officers from the Malawi Police Service moved through thick forest terrain, unsure of direction, relying on fragmented information and difficult navigation as they searched for a missing military aircraft carrying former Vice-President Saulos Chilima and eight others.

When they finally found it, there was no rescue to make—only devastation.

Testifying before Parliament’s Ad hoc Committee investigating the crash, MDF search team leader Lieutenant Obed Mwenebanda gave a deeply emotional account of how his unit slowly closed in on the wreckage after hours of difficult movement through the plantation.

“We had to go round and then at the tower to this spot because the terrain was not as easy,” he said, describing how the geography of the area made the search slow, exhausting, and uncertain.

He explained that when they eventually reached the site, the aircraft’s destruction told a brutal story of impact and finality.

“From what we saw, the plane first hit a blue gum tree, nosedived, creating a crater, rode for about 80 metres and then stopped in between two trees,” Mwenebanda said.

But it was what they found next that marked the emotional turning point of the entire operation.

“We saw the first body, another two were trapped in the aircraft and we tried to find anyone who could have been alive… but we found no one alive,” he told the committee quietly.

The MDF team had entered the forest hoping for survivors. Instead, they moved from search and rescue into recovery, confronted with the reality that the crash had left no chance of life.

Colonel Julius Mdokhwe later supported the technical assessment, explaining that the aircraft’s landing gear appeared to have broken on impact, causing it to slide across the ground before coming to rest between trees.

At the same hearing, police and civil aviation officers also painted a picture of a complex and chaotic response, marked by confusion over numbers, access challenges, and limited equipment.

Superintendent Harry Mbewe from the Criminal Investigation Department said their early assessment suggested three people were trapped in the wreckage. However, other officials later gave different figures, showing inconsistencies in the initial rescue understanding of the scene.

Civil Aviation head of aviation fire Charles Matabwa said their assessment indicated four people were trapped, adding that rescue teams struggled due to limited equipment.

“Our team in Mzuzu came with the equipment, but had run out of batteries. So we relied on what we brought from Lilongwe,” Matabwa said, explaining why recovery operations took several hours.

He said the lack of functional cutting tools slowed down the entire process. “That is why it took us long to remove the trapped bodies from 10am to around 3pm,” he added.

Malawi Red Cross Society communication specialist Felix Washon also described how humanitarian teams quickly arrived at the scene, providing stretchers, gloves, and support materials to assist in the recovery and handling of bodies in coordination with health authorities.

Mzuzu Airport supervisor Joseph Moyo told the committee that communication with the aircraft was lost mid-flight, triggering a national search effort after attempts to contact regional airports and neighbouring countries failed. He also noted that the aircraft had fuel for about four hours when it departed.

Meanwhile, Civil Aviation Authority director of Aerodromes and Air Navigation Standards Fredrick Chisepeya confirmed that Mzuzu Airport was not licensed at the time of the crash, meaning operations there were at the operator’s risk.

Outside the technical testimony, committee chairperson Walter Nyamilandu Manda reflected on the visit to the crash site, describing it as emotionally heavy and physically difficult terrain that helped lawmakers better understand the scale of the tragedy.

“There was a lot that happened on that particular day and we are now able to appreciate what the police and MDF did,” Nyamilandu said.

“It wasn’t easy. They tried their best to handle the situation professionally… the terrain is very difficult to access,” he added.

He said visiting the site helped the committee fully grasp the conditions faced by rescuers on the ground.

“It was very important for us to come here… to understand the processes that were used, how they identified the site, how they handled the bodies and how they moved on,” he said.

As the testimony closed, what emerged was a picture of a desperate, exhausting, and emotionally draining operation—soldiers and police pushing through rough terrain with fading hope, only to arrive at a scene that confirmed their worst fears.

For the rescuers who walked that forest floor, the memory remains not just about a crash site—but about the moment hope disappeared into silence.

Follow and Subscribe Nyasa TV :