By LordDenning QB
Part of the conspiracy theory alleged that they saw two people entering the plane during night at Kamuzu International Airport where it was parked and that they got out of the plane after some time. The theory proceeded to allege that those two people must have planted a bomb or compromised the safety of the plane in some way, which led to the accident.
According to the findings of the Commission:
After the remains of Senior Counsel Ralph Kasambala were offloaded at Mzuzu airport and the funeral procession proceeded to Nkhata-Bay, the aircraft was locked and crew members were taken from the airport to their accommodation place by a private soldier Migodi of Moyale Barracks. On their way from the airport, they received communication from Major Amin Karinga from Zomba Airbase informing them that they were given assigned another mission to pick the State Vice President from Kamuzu International Airport to Mzuzu the morning of the following day.
It was submitted in testimony that whenever the military plane stayed overnight at Mzuzu airport, MDF soldiers were supplied to complement the airport police security in guarding the plane. On this particular overnight stay, four police officers were deployed on the apron to guard the aircraft. An apron is to airplane what a carpark is to a car: a paved area where aircraft are parked, loaded, unloaded, etc. Pursuant to the MDF protocol, two soldiers were deployed to complement the security of the plane. Thus there were four airport police officers and two MDF soldiers guarding the plane on the apron. Further to that, the report narrates, there were other police officers situated to guard the runway and several others to guard the perimeter of the airport because Mzuzu airport does not have a complete perimeter fence.
What specific questions are addressed by this information?
“Did anyone enter the plane during the night at KIA to compromise its safety?”
The findings of the Commission as reported above clearly indicate that the plane was parked at Mzuzu Airport and not Kamuzu International Airport as alleged by the conspiracy. Therefore, if, at all, someone saw some two people entering some aircraft which was parked at KIA during the night of 9th June, then certainly it was not the MDF Donier 223 which came to pick the late Vice President. Otherwise, with the security arrangement accorded to the aircraft in Mzuzu, there is no evidence that the security was breached and that the plane was accessed during the night. That part of conspiracy theory, therefore, falls off!
