“Chilima asked for help” says witness
Parliament’s Ad-hoc Committee investigating the June 10, 2024 military plane crash that killed Vice-President Saulos Chilima and eight others yesterday heard extraordinary testimony from a Lilongwe resident who claims he saw Chilima standing at the door of the aircraft mid-air, calling for help.
Testifying before the committee at Parliament Building in Lilongwe, Ephraim Duma said he witnessed the incident in the Viphya Plantation while returning from Ekwendeni in Mzimba, where he had gone to buy a motorcycle.
Duma told the committee that the Malawi Defence Force aircraft suddenly stopped in mid-air.
He claimed he saw Vice-President Chilima, dressed in a black business suit, white shirt and red necktie, standing at the plane’s door calling for help, while an unknown force was pulling him back inside.
He further testified that the aircraft later flew into the hills, where he and two others followed it and found what he described as foreign militia members waiting.
According to Duma, two people emerged from the aircraft – one in a black suit and another in military uniform.
Duma alleged that soldiers on the ground then pursued them, killing one of his companions and shooting him three times in the back. He claimed he survived because he had undergone spiritual “body fortification” that made him immune to bullets.
His account, however, drew strong scepticism from committee members.Lilongwe Mude MP Mphatso Boti [MCP], a former MDF soldier, said a Dornier aircraft could not remain stationary in mid-air.
“What you are saying cannot happen. We are talking of science,” Boti said.
Dowa Kasangazi MP George Kadripatike [MCP], Dedza Kasina MP Joshua Malango [MCP] and Dedza Mayani MP Savel Kafwafwa [MCP] also faulted Duma’s testimony, saying it contradicted other evidence before the committee, including information in the German Federal Bureau of Aircraft Accident Investigation [BFU] report on the aircraft’s flight path and altitude.
But Duma maintained he was simply recounting what he saw.
When asked how he survived three gunshot wounds, he said he was spiritually protected, adding that he had once been earmarked to become Chief Kabunduli.
