Witness tells MPs he saw gunfire at Chilima crash site –

A bombshell witness account has thrown the investigation into the death of former Vice-President Saulos Chilima into fresh turmoil, after a community member told Parliament he saw Chilima apparently begging for help moments before the doomed aircraft crashed – and later witnessed gunfire at the wreckage.

Ephraim Duma delivered the extraordinary testimony on Tuesday before Parliament’s Ad Hoc Committee investigating the crash that killed Chilima and eight others in June 2024.

Duma told the committee he was travelling from Mzuzu on a motorcycle along the M1 road in the Chikangawa area when he spotted the aircraft in the sky. What happened next, he claimed, was stranger still.

According to Duma, the aircraft appeared to stop mid-air before moving again – and it was at that point, he said, that he saw Chilima calling out and beckoning for help.

The aircraft then turned left, prompting Duma, another motorcyclist and a passenger to give chase.

After losing sight of the plane, the group abandoned their motorcycles and continued on foot into the forest, where they came upon the horrifying scene of the aircraft crashing to the ground.

Duma’s account then took a still darker turn. He claimed more than 10 people were already at the crash site when he arrived, with some allegedly wearing army regalia and others appearing to him to be white.

Then, he said, came the gunshots. Duma alleged he saw two people emerge from the wreckage before shots rang out – killing one of his companions and targeting him directly. He said he survived only because, in his words, “my uncle protected me” from knives and bullets, before he collapsed and lost consciousness.

When he woke the following day, Duma said he found a truck and used it to travel back to Mzuzu. His motorcycle, abandoned during the chase, was never recovered, he told the committee.

The testimony ranks among the most startling accounts yet presented to the inquiry and, if independently substantiated, could raise profound questions over what happened in the moments before and after the aircraft went down. Duma’s allegations, however, remain unverified.

The committee is expected to weigh his testimony against other witness accounts, technical evidence and the findings of investigators before drawing any conclusions about the circumstances surrounding the crash.

The aircraft went down in June 2024 while travelling from Lilongwe to Mzuzu, killing Chilima and eight others. The wreckage was later discovered in the Chikangawa forest.