A Malawi Defense Force plane carrying the country's Vice President Saulos Chilima and nine others went missing Monday, the country's Secretary to the President and
Cabinet, Colleen Zamba, announced in a statement.
Zamba said the plane failed to make its scheduled landing at the country's Mzuzu Airport in the north at 10:02 a.m., local time, Monday.
"All efforts by the aviation authorities to make contact with the aircraft since it went off the radar have failed thus far," wrote Zamba.
Malawian President Lazarus Chakwera has since ordered all regional and national agencies to conduct an immediate search and rescue operation to locate the whereabouts of the aircraft.
The Malawian leader has also canceled his scheduled departure for the Bahamas, where he was going to attend a meeting by Afreximbank.
The vice president was traveling to a funeral of the country's former Attorney General and Minister of Justice Ralph Kasambara, who was found dead in a room at a lodge in Lilongwe, the capital of Malawi, Friday, and his body was buried Monday at his home village in Nkhata Bay, a few kilometers from Mzuzu Airport.
