{"id":39313,"date":"2026-07-11T09:16:27","date_gmt":"2026-07-11T07:16:27","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.channelafrica.co.za\/channelafrica\/?post_type=news&#038;p=39313"},"modified":"2026-07-11T09:16:27","modified_gmt":"2026-07-11T07:16:27","slug":"chilima-crash-inquiry-raises-questions-over-missing-flight-recorder-data","status":"publish","type":"news","link":"https:\/\/www.channelafrica.co.za\/channelafrica\/news\/chilima-crash-inquiry-raises-questions-over-missing-flight-recorder-data\/","title":{"rendered":"Chilima crash inquiry raises questions over missing flight recorder data"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p>The Ad Hoc Committee investigating the June 2024 crash has been examining the circumstances surrounding the accident involving a Malawi Defence Force Dornier aircraft. Testimony presented during the hearings has revealed that the aircraft was not fitted with either a cockpit voice recorder or a flight data recorder.<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p>The absence of both devices has raised questions about the findings of the official crash investigation, which referenced data typically associated with so-called \u201cblack box\u201d recorders.<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p>Witnesses told the committee that the military aircraft lacked the equipment commonly used to capture pilot communications, flight performance information and other technical data crucial to accident investigations.<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p>The revelation means that the black box data that reportedly informed the government\u2019s 2024 crash findings did not exist, according to evidence presented before the committee.<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p>&#8211;ChannelAfrica-<\/p>\n","protected":false},"featured_media":39314,"template":"","meta":{"_acf_changed":false},"news-type":[78,26],"class_list":["post-39313","news","type-news","status-publish","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","news-type-featured","news-type-general_news","entry"],"acf":{"short_description":"A parliamentary inquiry into the military aircraft crash that killed Malawi Vice President Dr Saulos Chilima and eight other people has heard testimony from about 40 witnesses, with new evidence casting doubt on key elements of the official investigation.","published_date":"","news_description":"A parliamentary inquiry into the military aircraft crash that killed Malawi Vice President Dr Saulos Chilima and eight other people has heard testimony from about 40 witnesses, with new evidence casting doubt on key elements of the official investigation.","form_embed":"","author":"","image_caption":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.channelafrica.co.za\/channelafrica\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/news\/39313","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.channelafrica.co.za\/channelafrica\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/news"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.channelafrica.co.za\/channelafrica\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/news"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.channelafrica.co.za\/channelafrica\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/news\/39313\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":39315,"href":"https:\/\/www.channelafrica.co.za\/channelafrica\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/news\/39313\/revisions\/39315"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.channelafrica.co.za\/channelafrica\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/39314"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.channelafrica.co.za\/channelafrica\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=39313"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"news-type","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.channelafrica.co.za\/channelafrica\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/news-type?post=39313"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}