The alleged armed personnel near the crash site, sounds of gunshots, the exploitation of deceased aircraft passengers' mobile phones to obtain Pasavute loans, and police hesitancy to proceed to Nthungwa on the day of the aircraft disaster despite receiving phone calls, present a concerning inquiry: Was GPS spoofing with counterfeit satellite timing and positioning data used to mislead onboard flight management computers resulting in the crash. Was it an accident as an earlier report stated? Journalist BRIAN LIGOMEKA mulls.
There is one troubling question. Can the truth of what really caused the crash that killed Vice President Saulosi Chilima be known when the military Dornier aircraft he and others were flying in lacked a flight data recorder (Black Box)? In 2024, a devastating aircraft crash at Nthunga in northern Malawi claimed the life of a charismatic Vice President. It has now emerged that some people were near the crash site and heard the crashing noise, but they faced strange encounters in the mountains. Flora Mkandawire, one of the witnesses, courageously spoke at the Commission of Enquiry about her shocking encounter.
Gun Shots
She revealed a chilling encounter where armed men dressed in camouflage chased her away near the crash site, raising suspicions far beyond a mere accident. This startling testimony deepened the mystery: was this a tragic accident or a calculated assassination?
Mkandawire explained that as she descended the hill, she saw the ill-fated plane flying at a distance before it changed course, continued for several minutes, and crashed.
“Later, I heard three gunshots, which puzzled me. I rushed back to tell other residents, but they dismissed my account,” she said.
She said she later reported the matter to the head teacher at Nthungwa Primary School, who, in turn, reported it to the police.
“When people accused me of making a mistake for reporting the crash, I was terrified . Police officers visited my home when I was in my field and took my two children to the field so that I could confess. I changed my statement out of fear and said I did not see anything,” Mkandawire told the committee.
FLORA MKANDAWIRE- Armed men chased me when I heard the aircarft crash while collecting firewood
To her shock, the headteacher, who had reported the matter to the police, was transferred days later from the school.
Critics are now raising questions as to why the police ignored information that almost pinpointed the site of the crash.
Just like Mkandawire, another witness, Ephraim Duma, also claimed that on June 10, 2024, while passing through the Chikangawa Forest, he saw the ill-fated aircraft flying unusually low and at times moving in circles.
He claimed to have seen the former vice president standing at the open door of the aircraft, shouting and trying to get out.
Duma also claimed that he heard gunshots three times, explaining that he felt he was being shot at in the back, but the bullets did not penetrate due to his magical powers.
His claims made some MPs question his mental state, the physical plausibility of an aircraft hovering with an open door mid-flight, and his magical bulletproof claims.
A close friend of Duma, Discover Munthali, testified before the committee, stating that Duma was mentally sound.
Ghost Phones
The late Saulosi Chilima's widow, Mary , in her testimony, told the Parliamentary Ad Hoc Committee that she believed her husband had three mobile phones, but authorities only returned two of them a month after the crash.
She said she had to make several follow-ups before she was given the two damaged phones.
TNM official Lloyd Gowero says only two phones linked to people aboard the aircraft that crashed in Chikangawa showed identifiable last connections to its network towers.
He said the phones belonged to Daniel Kanyemba and Major Aiding.
Gowers says Major Aidan’s phone showed the last connection at Mzimba turned off at 11:11 on June 10, 2024 (an hour after the crash), while Kanyemba’s phone showed its last connection at 10:16 at Nthungwa Tower.
Gowers also told the Parliamentary Ad-hoc Committee investigating the Chikangawa crash that Major Indin's phone had a "Pasavute" credit advance transaction on June 21, 2024—eleven days after the fatal crash.
The claim has raised questions about whether the phone was powered on and handled by someone after the accident or if the system triggered an automatic service activation.
TNM officials stated they would double-check and confirm how the "Pasavute" service behaves or if it can activate automatically without manual input.
But the question remains: if, indeed, someone used the phone to make financial transactions on June 21, how did they know the password? If the phone was functional, why wasn’t it returned to the family in good time?
Accident or what?
Germany's Federal Bureau of Aircraft Accident Investigation (BF) concluded that the June 10, 2024, aircraft collided with a hillside at Nthungwa in Chikangawa Forest due to low visibility and heavy cloud cover.
The report also said the flight crew lacked a formal pre-flight weather briefing for the specific route, violating international standards.
According to the report, pilots chose to fly at dangerously low altitude beneath clouds instead of turning back or flying properly for instrument navigation.
The BF Report also hinted that the military Dornier 228-202(K) aircraft did not have a Cockpit Voice Recorder (CVR), and its emergency locator transmitter (ELT) failed because its battery had expired years prior.
In his submission to the inquiry, former Zomba Air Base Operations and Training Officer Captain Henry Nthani's military aircraft crash on 10 June 2024 was “a very unavoidable fatal accident.”
He said it was possible pilots battled impossible conditions and made split-second decisions that prevented an even more horrific outcome.
“It was a very unavoidable fatal accident,” Captain Nthani told the committee, insisting that the crew possessed the skills and professionalism required to fly the aircraft but ultimately faced circumstances beyond human control.
“Sometimes pilots encounter extremely bad weather that makes an aircraft difficult to control, even though they apply all their professional expertise,” he explained, adding, "I believe they managed the situation as best as possible.”
Nthani highlighted one critical limitation confronting investigators: the aircraft lacked a “black box.”
“The exact events in the cockpit may never be fully established,” he indicated, pointing to the absence of recording equipment.
Doubts
But some believe that there was more to the accident than what the BFU Report found.
One of them is the widow of the late Major Wales Aidin, who told the Commission of Enquiry that she remains unconvinced by the official explanation of the tragedy.
TAONA AIDIN- It is 50-50. It cannot just be concluded it was an accident
Taona Aidin believes there was an equal possibility that the crash was either a genuine accident or deliberately caused.
She said on the fateful day she remained in contact throughout the journey, with their last exchange being at around 9:30 a.m. when he texted her saying they were en route to Mzuzu. When she later contacted him, there was no response.
She also questioned why investigators had not disclosed her husband’s final communications, which could have provided information about what happened aboard the aircraft.
She expressed reservations about the conclusions reached by BFU investigators saying some of their observations were just assumptions.
“It is difficult to conclude that it was just an accident. It’s a 50-50 situation. It was perhaps a real accident or that it was caused,” she told the commission. She pointed out that “the German investigators hinted that they made assumptions and not certainties.
With some witnesses like Flora Mkandawire saying that they met armed men near the crash site, the question of a plot or assassination comes into mind.
What could be the motive? Was it the elimination of a political rival? But can a military plane be hijacked in midair? It does not seem plausible.
But perhaps such suspicions should not be entirely dismissed, as in the world of technology it may be possible to use false beacons to transmit counterfeit signals that may trick an aircraft’s cockpit instruments into falsely showing that the plane is aligned with the centerline for a descent profile.
GPS SPOOFING - It can mislead aircrafts but so far such evidence has not emerged in the inquiry
If not, perhaps GPS spoofing also has some capability of misleading the aircraft with counterfeit satellite timing and positioning data to mislead onboard flight management computers, leading to the crash. But do we have such expertise in Malawi? Or were foreigners hired?
While the truth might be difficult to uncover, the witnesses being chased by armed men, the sounds of gunshots, the use of deceased phones to get credit, and the police’s reluctance to go to Nthungwa on the day that the aircraft crashed after receiving phone calls are a recipe for conspiracy theories.
As the investigation continues, the sombre reality remains—the loss of a charismatic leader in circumstances that demand answers has made many people watch closely and hope for clarity and justice in the face of uncertainty about what really caused the accident.
Brian Ligomeka writes for both local and international media