By Brian Okoth
The aircraft that crashed and claimed the lives of Malawi's Vice President Saulos Chilima and nine other people on Monday, June 10 has been identified as the Dornier 228-202K.
The victims died at Chikangawa Forest in Malawi's Northern Region, moments after the air traffic controllers at Mzuzu International Airport directed the aircraft to return to the capital Lilongwe.
Malawi's President Lazarus Chakwera said the aircraft could not land at Mzuzu airport due to poor weather.
Aviation analytics platform Cirium says Malawi's air force operated about thee Dornier aircraft. Records show Malawi acquired the aircraft between 1986 and 1989.
Dornier's collapse
Dornier was a German aircraft manufacturer that closed business in 2002 due to financial problems. The company was founded by German engineer Claudius Dornier in 1914.
By the time of its collapse, Dornier had reportedly sold more than 1,000 units worldwide.
The Dornier 228-202K sits 18 passengers and two crew members.
It has a maximum takeoff weight of 6,200 kilogrammes, and can fly up to 430 kilometres per hour. Its maximum flight altitude is around 25,000 feet.
Air incidents
The Dornier 228 series is powered by a pair of small engines that drive the propellers.
A 1989 Dornier 228-202K aircraft costs about 2.3 million US dollars.
Records show that at least 96 air incidents have been attributed to the aircraft since 1981. A total of 218 deaths occurred in different parts of the world in some of the incidents.
The specific model – Dornier 228-202K – has caused a total of 12 deaths between 2008 and 2024, with 10 of the deaths registered in the June 10 crash in Malawi.
Deaths in DRC
Aviation Safety Network's database shows the other two deaths were recorded in Chile in September 2013.
Other non-fatal incidents involving the 228-202K model occurred in the Central African Republic, Philippines, Nepal, Australia and India.
The Dornier 228 series has, however, recorded several deaths.
In the Democratic Republic of Congo, for instance, a Dornier 228-201 commercial aircraft crashed and claimed the lives of 27 people in the eastern town of Goma on November 24, 2019.
Fatalities in Nigeria
In Nigeria, a Dornier 228-212 aircraft operated by the country's air force, crashed and killed 13 people in Benue State in September 2006.
Again in Nigeria, a similar Dornier aircraft belonging to the air force, crashed into a residential house in the northern state of Kaduna in August 2015, and claimed seven lives.
The other fatal incident involving a Dornier aircraft on African soil occurred in Cape Verde in August 1999, when a crash claimed 18 lives. In South Sudan's Pibor town, one person died in September 2020.
Between 1992 and 2024, Nigeria has had 3 non-fatal incidents involving the Dornier, the Democratic Republic of Congo has had 2, Sao Tome and Principe 1, and Somalia 1.
Fatal crashes in Nepal
Outside Africa, a Dornier crash claimed the lives of 11 people in western India in 1989, and 19 people in Nepal in 1993.
Still in Nepal, 14 people lost their lives in 2010, and 15 others in 2012.
After Dornier's collapse in 2002, a Swiss company bought the rights to continue producing the 228 series. The firm then sold the rights to a US company in 2020.
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