Malawi Defence Force flight goes missing with Vice President Chilima on board

An aircraft with Saulos Klaus Chilima, Vice President of Malawi,  went missing on Monday. V-P Chilima was on board the fight alongside nine others, Malawi's presidency said in a statement. A search and rescue operation is underway to spot the airplane.

"All efforts by aviation authorities to make contact with the Aircraft since it went off the radar have failed thus far," Malawi's Office of the President and Cabinet said in a statement.

 Aviation authorities lost contact with the plane when it went off radar, the statement added.

It was an aircraft belonging to the Malawi Defence Force that the 51-year-old was traveling on, sources said in a report. The plane took off from Malawi's capital Lilongwe before going missing.

The destination of the aircraft was said to be Mzuzu International Airport, located in the capital city of the Northern Region of the Republic of Malawi.