A final report by German investigators who probed the aircraft crash that killed then Vice-President Saulos Chilima and eight others has attributed the accident to poor judgement, lack of awareness and inadequate pre-flight preparation.
The accident occurred on June 10 last year when the military aircraft, a Dornier 228-202K, went down in Nthungwa, a section of Chikangawa Forest in Nkhata Bay.
The German Federal Bureau of Aircraft Accident Investigation (BFU) conducted the investigation at the request of the government of Malawi to the German government.
Regarding the causes of the accident, the BFU says: “The accident occurred because the crew flew into instrument meteorological conditions [IMC] during flight under visual flight rules [VFR] and the aircraft collided with the ascending terrain.
“The following contributed to the accident: the decision to continue the flight to the destination at low altitude in marginal weather conditions; lack of situational awareness; and inadequate pre-flight preparation.”
According to aviation authorities such as the Federal Aviation Administration, the United States’ national aviation authority, VFR into IMC means pilots navigate based on visual references in weather conditions that require instrument navigation.
And according to the report, weather conditions on the day were too poor, with low visibility to fly safely without instruments.
It states that due to poor visibility and low altitude, the aircraft struck rising terrain, a hill in this case, a scenario known as controlled flight into terrain, where a properly functioning aircraft is unintentionally flown into the ground.
Experts point out that a pilot’s decision to continue flying at a low altitude despite marginal weather, instead of diverting, turning back or climbing to safer altitudes, creates a continuation of risky actions.
The report adds that the crew likely lost awareness of their exact position, altitude relative to terrain and the weather ahead.
Additionally, it implies that the flight may have been poorly planned, possibly lacking updated weather briefings, proper route planning or terrain awareness, suggesting a lack of contingency planning for worsening weather conditions.
The report also states that the aircraft was not equipped with a cockpit voice recorder or flight data recorder, apparently because these were not mandated by Malawi’s aviation regulations.
Additionally, no radar data from the day of the accident was available from the Lilongwe air navigation service provider.
However, GPS position and altitude data were retrieved from the “onboard Garmin Aera 760 navigation system, which recorded the flight from 08:46:48 to 10:16:14, ending shortly after the crash due to battery depletion”.
The report says analysis of this data, using Garmin BaseCamp software, an application that helps users plan and manage outdoor activities and trips, revealed that the aircraft flew at altitudes below 1,000 feet above ground level (AGL) on multiple occasions, with the lowest altitude being 185 feet AGL.
After briefly climbing to around 2,000 feet AGL, the aircraft descended again and remained under 1,000 feet AGL until impact, the report says.
It adds that during the final 16 minutes of flight, the average ground speed was 128 knots, potentially lower due to wind from the south to southeast.
Chilima and the eight others were on their way to Nkhata Bay to attend the burial ceremony of former Cabinet minister and lawyer Ralph Kasambara when the accident occurred.
“According to the Malawi Air Force, in the evening of June 9, the flight crew received the order to pick up the Vice-President of the Republic of Malawi and his entourage the following day in Lilongwe and fly them to Mzuzu,” the report says.
It adds that the plan also included flying Chilima back to Lilongwe after the funeral, which was scheduled to begin at 10:00.
“Afterwards, the crew should have flown to Mzuzu again to bring the family members of the deceased [Kasambara] back to Blantyre-Chileka,” the report adds.
Meanwhile, the government has organised a memorial service scheduled for June 10, 2025 at the accident site to commemorate the nine victims of the crash.
In parallel, Chilima’s family is holding a separate memorial service at Nsipe in Ntcheu, where he was laid to rest.
