'It was my own assumption': Msonthi denies confirming Chilima plane crash details to Nthakomwa

Retired Lieutenant General John Msonthi Jnr, former deputy commander of operations for the Malawi Defence Force, has told the parliamentary committee investigating the Chikangawa plane crash that his conclusion the aircraft had gone down on 10 June 2024 was based on personal instinct rather than any confirmed information — testimony that appears to conflict with an earlier account given to the same inquiry.

Msonthi told the committee he had telephoned Moses Nthakomwa, a close friend of the late Vice-President Saulos Chilima, on the day the aircraft disappeared, to convey his belief that it had crashed.

He said this assessment was informed by poor weather conditions, the extended period without communication from the flight, and the surrounding circumstances, but stressed he had no evidence to support the claim at the time.

Under questioning from committee chair Walter Nyamilandu, Msonthi was pressed on whether he had told Nthakomwa that the plane had been located on 10 June, or had merely voiced a personal belief that it had crashed.

"It was my own assumption. I had no information whatsoever that the plane had been found on June 10, 2024," Msonthi said, adding that no one had confirmed the crash at that stage.

"On June 10, 2024, there was nobody who knew that the plane had crashed. It was just my assumption."

The distinction is significant given that Nthakomwa's earlier testimony to the committee described receiving a call from Msonthi at around 8pm on 10 June in which he was given a specific account of the crash, including that the aircraft had struck trees and that all those on board had died.

Msonthi attributed the discrepancy to the emotional circumstances of the call, suggesting Nthakomwa may have interpreted speculative discussion as established fact.

"Moses was emotional, he wasn't himself. Maybe he picked it up from the fact that I was thinking the plane had crashed," he told the inquiry.

Asked directly about Nthakomwa's account that he had described the aircraft hitting trees and confirmed there were no survivors, Msonthi maintained the conversation had been speculative in nature.

"Moses was so emotional. We were just talking as friends that maybe the plane could have crashed and maybe it had hit trees," he said.

Pressed on why Nthakomwa had named him as the source of the information, Msonthi said he believed his friend had simply been recounting the substance of their private exchange rather than misattributing confirmed facts to him.

"Yes, he mentioned me based on what we talked about. I thought he would just explain what we had discussed," he said.

The conflicting accounts raise further questions for the committee over how information — and speculation — circulated among individuals close to Chilima in the hours following the aircraft's disappearance, and whether early assumptions were subsequently treated as verified fact as the search for the missing plane unfolded.