Malawi warned to ignore aviation investment at own risk

The search for answers in the Chikangawa plane crash has exposed a costly gap that military aviation officials say the country can no longer afford to ignore.

Appearing before the Parliamentary Ad-Hoc Committee investigating the crash in Lilongwe on Tuesday, Alex Mwachande said Malawi must invest more in aviation safety systems despite the high costs involved.

Mwachande, who heads the Zomba Airbase, told the inquiry that the Malawi Defence Force’s Air Department failed to procure critical equipment, including a Data Recorder, Cockpit Voice Recorder and Emergency Locator Transmitter (ELT), because of funding constraints.

He said if the ELT had been procured, it would have been much easier to locate the crash site and recover the bodies quickly.

He clarified that an ELT serves no function during flight except to transmit the aircraft’s location after a crash or during an emergency landing.

Highlighting rising costs, Mwachande said aircraft engines currently at Zomba Airbase are also to inspected after 1,800 flight hours. The cost of that inspection has jumped from USD400,000 to USD1 million recently.

On crew expertise, Mwachande told the committee that Colonel Owen Sambalopa and Flight Officer Florence Seleman were both highly experienced pilots. Sambalopa had also served as a flight instructor, training other MDF pilots.

The committee has then requested Mwachande to submit documented evidence of the amount of fuel the aircraft refueled at Kamuzu International Airport, along with the aircraft’s flight endurance capacity.

The inquiry is fact finding the cases and all facts surrounding the plane crash which claimed the lives of nine people including the state vice president Saulos Chilima on 10th June 2024