Plane carrying Malawi vice president disappears | Malawi

A plane carrying Malawi's Vice President Saulos Chilima and nine others has disappeared, the president's office said in a statement Monday evening.

Malawi Defense Force plane 'disappeared from radar' after leaving capital Lilongwe at 9:17am local time (08:17am BST) and failed to land in Mzuzu, almost 300km away (185 miles) north, at the scheduled time of 10:02 a.m.

“All efforts by air authorities to contact the plane since it disappeared from radar have so far failed,” said the statement, signed by Colleen Zamba, secretary to the president of Malawi. The press release does not specify the type of plane.

President Lazarus Chakwera ordered a search and rescue operation and canceled a planned visit to the Bahamas.

Chilima, 51, was due to attend the funeral of Ralph Kasambara, former justice minister and attorney general, in Chijere village, east of Mzuzu.

Kasambara, 55, was found dead of heart failure last Friday, according to a government Facebook post.

Malawi is experiencing heavy rains in parts of the country, particularly in the north.

Chilima has been vice president of the southern African country since 2014. He previously headed the Airtel Malawi mobile network and worked at Unilever, Coca-Cola and Carlsberg, according to his profile on the government website.

Chilima is married and mother of two children. He earned a doctorate in knowledge management from the University of Bolton, according to the government website.