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A search for a Dutch national Linda Pronk, who went missing in Mulanje Mountain on Saturday, intensified Wednesday with the Dutch Embassy sending a helicopter from Zimbabwe to join a Malawi Army helicopter in the exercise.
Police spokesman George Chikowi said Wednesday Wildlife and Parks officials, Forestry personnel, Mulanje Mountain Conservations Trust members and Mulanje Mission Hospital personnel have joined the search.
“We have not found her yet but the search is still going on and I think with the help of two helicopters, we will have positive results,” said Chikowi.
An official from Likhubula Forest Office in Mulanje, who refused to give his name, said the other plane arrived Wednesday morning.
He said Pronk and her friends did not go through its office to pay for a park entry fee as is the procedure.
“Although its not mandatory to hike to Sapitwa with a tour guide, we strongly recommend that tourists be accompanied by our licenced tour guides but these people did not go through this office,” said the official
Meanwhile, Voluntary Service Overseas (VSO), an international development charity that works through volunteers said in a statement Wednesday that Pronk is one of their volunteers and that they, too, have joined in the search.
“Her brother Bert Pronk has now arrived in Malawi to be on the scene. VSO programme Officer Gerald Nyasulu is on the scene assisting to coordinate activities from a base at Likulezi and the VSO Malawi Office is in regular contact for updates,” reads the statement in part.
The statement says Pronk, together with a group of about 14, climbed the lower slopes of Mulanje Mountain on Friday afternoon and stayed overnight. The following day, most of the group went back down the mountain but a smaller group, including Pronk, went on to climb Sapitwa and intended to stay overnight.
“At this point Linda became separated from the group,” reads the statement.
Pronk, who was recruited from Holland, has been working at Mulanje Mission Hospital as a Laboratory Technician since September 2002.
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