As witness hearings continue, the Ad Hoc Committee of Parliament investigating the plane crash which killed Vice President Dr Saulos Chilima and eight others has heard from Major General Richard Chagonapanja.
At the time of the crash, Major General Chagonapanja was the leader of the search and rescue operation.
At the outset, Major General Chagonapanja told the committee that when he received information about the missing plane, the Malawi Defence Force and the Police in Mzuzu instituted a joint search and rescue operation for the missing aircraft.
However, Major General Chagonapanja cited bad weather as one of the factors that impeded the search.
He said the weather was foggy, making visibility difficult.
On equipment, Major General Chagonapanja said the teams were ill-equipped for an operation of such magnitude, while the difficult terrain also affected the search efforts.
More importantly, Major General Chagonapanja said the absence of an Emergency Locator Transmitter, a radio device installed on aircraft to send distress signals and help search teams locate a crashed aircraft, worsened the situation.
The Major General also said inaccurate information about the reported sighting of the aircraft led the teams to concentrate their search in the wrong directions, thereby wasting time.
Major General Chagonapanja said although there was an order to suspend the search on the night of 10 June, the army continued with the operation.
He disclosed that when the crash site was located at 11:58, three bodies, including that of a pilot, were still trapped in the wreckage but were later removed.
However, he told the committee that the long time it took to locate the aircraft should not be interpreted as a failure, but should instead serve as a lesson for future search and rescue operations.
Meanwhile, the committee has moved to the Northern Region.
Following previous reports on the plane crash, the new inquiry intends to fill some critical gaps and seek answers to unresolved public questions.
By Isaac Jali
