The BFU Interim Report does not submit the cause of the accident. It only submits relevant facts about the accident. Therefore, the opinions raised herein are only personal based on the facts presented, and I am ruling out any possible assassination plot and foul play on the Chikangawa plane crash based on the following reasons:
Firstly, Chilima’s trip to the funeral aboard the Dornier 228-200(K) was not planned in advance. Assassins could not have had time to plan and execute a successful plot to down the plane. No one knew in advance that if Ralph Kasambara died, the family would decide to burry him on 10 June, and Chilima would want to attend the funeral on the Dornier 228-200(K). Remember that Chilima himself willfully requested to use the Dornier. He was not persuaded or forced to use it. No one could have predicted that Chilima would choose the Dornier especially that he habitually never used it.
Additionally, it was late in the evening of 9th of June when Chilima requested the plane. The flight crew received the instruction to pick the Vice President in the morning while they slept at Mzuzu Hotel (p.16). If the flight was planned at night, and by 6:00am the flight crew were already at the Airport (p.2), then potential assassins would have known about it that same night while they were sleeping. Therefore, they could have had less than 6hours of the night to abruptly call each other, meet at an agreed location, plan the assassination, mobilize resources, train and simulate the situation, travel by road to Lilongwe or Mzuzu or Chikangawa, and be in position for execution at least by 5:00am depending on where they would execute from. There was no time.
Secondly, there was bad weather in Chikangawa up to Mzuzu (p.7). I don’t think it is reasonable to suspect that assassins created the bad weather. The GPS information shows that while the plane had stayed on course, and maintained straight flight path and regular altitude from takeoff at around 9:16am, it begun to get erratic only when it was approaching the bad weather of Chikangwa from around 9:37am. It quickly ascended from 7,500ft to 8,600ft within 3minutes and departed from its flight path at 9:50am. Within the 26 minutes that followed it made several strange turns including three 360 degrees turns and made several sharp ascending and descending movements as high as 8,600ft and as low as 5,500ft (p2-4; p 18). As at 10:13, the plane made a sharp descent from 7,000ft and crashed in the forest in 3minutes.
However, at 10:12am which was just one minute before the plane made the final descent and crashed, the pilots spoke with the Mzuzu Tower. They discussed the bad weather and the pilots talked about the possibility of landing from Ekwendeni side (p.4). Immediately after this call, they begun to descend. It is clear, therefore, that throughout the 20 minutes of the erratic movements of the plane, the pilots were in control of the plane. They were taking the plane high to fly clear above the fog and would later descend low to attempt to fly clear below the fog. And they would fly away to the left to attempt approaching Mzuzu from different clear direction.
Thirdly, medical and pathological information from post-mortem reports which were independently done by deceased families, showed that all aboard died on impact from injuries that were consistent with impact of the crash landing (p.14 -p15). The cuts and broken limbs were not inflicted by deliberate cuts with axes and pangas from anyone.
And fourthly, the non-functioning or absence of flight equipment like Cockpit Voice Recorder or Flight Data Recorder and Emergency Locator Transmitter (ELT) among others, do not suggest assassination plot because that equipment was always not in the Dornier, and is also not linked to the technical causation of the accident. Even if that equipment was in the plane, it could still have crashed that morning. Some of the equipment like the ELT had been nonfunctional for 20years (p.16-p.17). The equipment was not removed on the day of Chilima’s flight. Even when the plane was being used by President Chakwera or others, it still lacked such crucial equipment.
Therefore, I strongly feel that there was no foul play or assassination plot in the Chikangwa plane crash. It was an accident caused by natural forces of bad weather which the pilot failed to navigate through, despite great effort. And the crew and passengers died at the crash site from natural injuries from the crash impact.
