Malawi: Chilima Crash - Body Parts Found in Wrong Bags, Inquiry Told

What the report says

A senior clinical officer has told Malawi’s Parliament that the handling of the bodies from the June 2024 plane crash that killed former vice-president Saulos Chilima and seven others involved a serious mortuary mix-up. The testimony was given to a parliamentary ad hoc committee investigating the crash and the aftermath, according to the report carried by Nyasa Times and distributed by AllAfrica.

The officer, Andrew Master Mwale of Kamuzu Central Hospital, said he collected the remains from Sunset Funeral Home in Lilongwe’s Kanengo area on June 11, 2024. He told lawmakers that the body bags were labeled with the victims’ names and that the remains were placed in cold storage pending post-mortem examinations the following day. He also said he ordered that the bodies not be tampered with.

The report says Mwale later found that body parts had been placed in the wrong bags, including parts that did not match Chilima’s remains. He also described preserving a large set of remains he believed may have belonged to Major Abdul Lapukeni, whose body had already been released for burial under Muslim rites. When he returned the next day, those preserved parts were gone, the article said.

The account adds that military personnel reportedly cleaned the bodies of crew members overnight before they were sent to their homes. The claims are significant because they raise questions about morgue procedures, chain of custody, and the handling of evidence in one of Malawi’s most closely watched transport tragedies.