Malawi’s presidential office said on Monday that a plane carrying the country’s Vice President Saulos Klaus Chilima and nine others has gone missing.

“All attempts by aviation authorities to contact the aircraft since it disappeared from radar have so far failed,” Malawi’s Office of the President and Cabinet said in a statement.

Chilima, 51, was on board a Malawi Defence Force aircraft that took off from the capital, Lilongwe, at 9.17 am local time (12.45 pm IST), the statement said. Search and rescue operations were underway, it said.