Malawi’s parliament has announced plans to exhume the remains of former vice-president Saulos Chilima and eight others who died in a June 2024 military aircraft crash in northern Malawi.
The move forms part of a renewed parliamentary inquiry into the disaster that killed all nine people on board a Dornier 228 aircraft operated by the Malawi Defence Force.
A parliamentary statement issued on Tuesday said the exhumations would allow forensic pathologists to conduct post-mortem examinations that were not carried out when the victims’ bodies were recovered in 2024.
The plane crashed in the Chikangawa Forest Reserve in northern Malawi on 10 June 2024 while travelling from Lilongwe to Mzuzu.
All nine occupants, including Chilima and former first lady Patricia Shanil Muluzi died in what remains one of the country’s most significant aviation disasters.
The parliamentary ad hoc committee investigating the crash said the delayed autopsies would be part of three parallel investigative processes expected to begin in mid-May 2026.
The decision has raised questions among aviation safety specialists about why the examinations were not conducted immediately after the bodies were recovered.
International aviation investigation guidelines generally require prompt post-mortem examinations after fatal air accidents. They help determine whether medical emergencies, pilot incapacitation, toxicology factors or other human-factor issues contributed to the crash.
Without early forensic analysis, investigators lose potentially crucial information about the condition of flight crew and passengers at the time of impact.
The parliamentary inquiry follows two previous investigations that attempted to establish the cause of the crash. A government-appointed commission of inquiry concluded in December 2024 that poor weather was the primary factor behind the accident.
A separate technical report released in June last year by Germany’s Federal Bureau of Aircraft Accident Investigation reached similar conclusions, attributing the crash to the crew’s decision to continue operating in adverse weather at low altitude.
Both investigations identified weather and pilot decision-making as central factors in the accident but did not reference forensic autopsy findings.
Public confidence in the official findings has remained fragile since the disaster. During a Christmas Eve mass in December 2024, Thomas Luke Msusa, the Catholic archbishop of Blantyre, publicly questioned the credibility of the commission’s conclusions.
Civil society groups, including the Centre for Democracy and Economic Development Initiatives, have also called for greater transparency and the release of complete investigation records.
The government subsequently authorised a parliamentary inquiry in early 2026 to address what lawmakers described as unresolved gaps in previous reports.
Forensic specialists say the nearly year-long delay could limit what investigators can learn from exhumations.
While modern forensic pathology can extract some information from exhumed remains, decomposition, embalming chemicals and environmental conditions can significantly reduce the reliability of toxicological tests and soft-tissue analysis.
Immediate autopsies could have helped determine whether the pilot or co-pilot experienced medical events such as cardiac arrest or stroke during the flight, or whether substances affecting judgement were present in their systems.
Injury patterns can also assist investigators in understanding whether occupants were conscious at the moment of impact and how the aircraft struck the ground.
The ad hoc committee said its investigation will involve more than 150 witnesses drawn from government agencies, aviation authorities, military personnel and other institutions connected to the flight.
Some testimony would be taken in public hearings, while other evidence would be heard in closed sessions. Parliament had also established a public hotline to receive submissions related to the crash.
The committee expected the inquiry to run for 90 days once technical experts and auditors were appointed, with a final report anticipated later in 2026.
The decision to exhume the victims could reopen painful wounds for families who buried their relatives in June 2024 after national mourning and a state funeral for Chilima.
Burial traditions hold deep cultural and spiritual significance in Malawi and disturbing graves can carry emotional and religious implications.
The parliamentary statement does not specify whether families have been consulted about the planned exhumations or what legal procedures will govern the process.
For many relatives, the renewed investigation represents both a search for answers and the prospect of revisiting a national tragedy that shook the country.
More than a year after the fatal Malawi Defence Force plane crash that killed Saulos Chilima, lawmakers have ordered forensic exhumations amid lingering questions over the official findings
