Zanzibar president's runaway plane

President Amour: Visit focused on investment

By Raphael Tenthani in Blantyre

A state visit to Malawi by Zanzibari President Salmin Amour came to a crashing finale when his aircraft hit a wall at Blantyre's Chileka airport on Wednesday.

It was a strange accident; the plane just started taxiing on its own

Airport commandant Davis Kachingwe

No one was injured in the incident, which occurred when the plane which had carried the president and his entourage started moving by itself late on Wednesday afternoon.

"It was a strange accident; the plane just started taxiing on its own," Chileka Airport commandant Davis Kachingwe told BBC News Online on Thursday.

Mr Kachingwe said initial investigations indicate that strong winds that were blowing were too strong for the jet that was parked without its wheels being secured by chocks.

Grounded

The jet started rolling until it crashed into the wall, and then stopped on impact.

The plane wants me to stay here among my friends

President Salmin Amour

Mr Kachingwe said the wall is intact despite a few cracks, but the jet had one of its wings damaged, rendering it unable to fly.

President Amour himself made light of the whole incident. Asked whether this was a bad omen in light of the Tanzanian elections on 29 October and his subsequent retirement after the polls, Mr Amour said in fact the freak accident was an indication that the gods want to bring forward his retirement.

"The plane wants me to stay here among my friends," he said.

Alaudin Osman, press secretary for Amour's host President Bakili Muluzi, said the Ministry of Foreign Affairs in Malawi chartered an Air Malawi plane which would fly Mr Amour and his entourage back to Zanzibar.

Free market moves

At a press conference before his departure, President Amour - who is also deputy president of the United Republic of Tanzania - said Zanzibar was building what he described as a free port market.

"This is a realisation of a 100-year dream," he said.

Amour said the idea of establishing a free port market was mooted in Zanzibar in 1892. He, however, said the idea was shelved until 1992.

President Muluzi welcomed the idea of the free market, saying Malawians are spending a lot of money to fly to the free port market in Dubai in the United Arab Emirates.

"Africa will only be developed by Africans themselves," he said.

President Amour said the Government of Zanzibar would offer tax-free investiment opportunities to investors in the free port and would allow investors to repariate all their profits if they want to.