The search for the missing plane was up against a problem from the start, too few officers to comb the vast Chikangawa forest, a parliamentary inquiry has heard.
Former Deputy Commissioner of Police Sydon Mpina told the Ad-Hoc Parliamentary Committee investigating the crash that the manpower deployed was insufficient for the size of the search area.
He said the teams held a tactical pause on the first day and were all alerted because of a lack of equipment and valid reports about the crash.
“It was therefore agreed that the operation be suspended for the night and be resumed in the next morning, 11th June 2024, with more manpower,” he said.
In his submission, Mpina said that at 1500 hours he was along the Chikangawa road when he received a phone call from Emmanuel Soko, who was Commissioner of Police for the Central West Region.
Soko told him that the aircraft carrying the Vice President had gone missing after failing to land at Mzuzu Airport as scheduled and had crashed in Chikangawa forest.
Mpina said he then went to Chikangawa Police Post to meet the officer in charge, Senior Superintendent Kingsley Ntope, but he was not at the post.
He contacted Mtope by phone and was told that he was at Raiply Company, where he too had received the report of the alleged crash.
Mpina said Mtope briefed him that reports indicated the plane had crashed within the Raiply area, in an area of focus determined to be 20 kilometres east of the Raiply Airtel tower, towards Nkhata-Bay.
At Raiply, Mpina told the committee, they were joined by Malawi Defence Force officers who guard Chikangawa Forest, and they waited for further instructions.
At 1600 hours, Mpina, together with officers from Chikangawa Police Post, members of the public and Raiply workers, entered the forest, focusing on the eastern side towards Nkhata-Bay.
The crash claimed the life of former Vice President Saulos Klaus Chilima and eight others.
