The Parliamentary Adhoc Committee investigating the June 10, 2024 military plane crash in Malawi that killed Vice-President Saulos Chilima and eight others has heard testimony from the Malawi Communications Regulatory Authority (Macra) and mobile phone operators. The committee was informed of the efforts made to trace contact with passengers aboard the crashed plane using phone data. Former Macra director general Daud Suleman, TNM plc, and Airtel Malawi plc provided their accounts of the phone data trail.
The mobile phone operators provided contradictory testimonies on when passenger phone data became available during the search for the crashed Malawi Defence Force aircraft. Airtel Malawi plc team leader Charles Kamoto, now heading Airtel Tanzania, testified that four mobile phone handsets belonging to passengers were in usable condition. He also revealed that the list of passengers' numbers provided by the Office of the President and Cabinet did not include Chilima's contacts, but he included it at his own initiative.
TNM plc team leader Michel Hébert told the committee that active network data could ordinarily be retrieved within minutes, but delays occurred due to the information initially supplied to the operator. Hébert said Suleman contacted him at 1.51pm on June 10, 2024, and that he immediately agreed to help search for a number registered to then Cabinet minister Nancy Tembo and later two numbers associated with Chilima's widow Mary. The searches produced results showing the phones were not aboard the aircraft.
TNM chief technical officer Lloyd Gowera testified that some of the numbers initially provided were not active on TNM, while others had apparently been inactive since April 2024. He also said that a phone whose data session was recorded at Mzimba Turn-Off, about 41.8 kilometres from Nthungwa, could potentially have been in the vicinity of Nthungwa earlier. Gowera said the exercise involving confirmed TNM numbers began around 10am on June 11, with feedback available between 11am and 11.30am.
Former Macra director general Daud Suleman told the committee that delays occurred in retrieval and reporting of some phones that registered on network towers, although the data was eventually provided. Suleman said an initial passenger manifest containing phone numbers was sent to the heads of Airtel Malawi and TNM by then Secretary to the President and Cabinet Colleen Zamba. Gowera said that if proper numbers were provided on the first day, they could have pinpointed Nthungwa as one of the areas to be looked at.
In her earlier testimony, Zamba told the inquiry that one of the phones was last detected on a Raiply tower at about 12.30pm. Effiness Katunga Kanyemba, widow of Chilima's physician Dan Kanyemba, earlier testified that her husband's phone went unanswered around 4pm on the day of the crash. Kamoto said Airtel could not trace activity on Chilima's number, while his wife's number was connected to the Area 30 site in Lilongwe.
The committee's investigation into the phone data trail is ongoing, with key points emerging, including:
Key points
- Delays in retrieving and reporting phone data occurred due to initial incomplete information supplied to mobile operators.
- Mobile operators provided contradictory testimonies on when passenger phone data became available during the search.
- The phone data trail could have potentially helped locate the crashed plane earlier if accurate information was provided to operators on the first day.
