BULAWAYO – A multi-agency investigation is underway after pilots flying President Emmerson Mnangagwa were allegedly targeted with ground lasers on approach to the Robert Gabriel Mugabe International Airport, ZimLive can reveal.
The incident reportedly happened just before 7PM of July 12 as the president returned from a trip to Mozambique aboard an Air Zimbabwe Boeing 737.
The pilots reported being blinded by laser-like lights during approach to the airport, sources said.
Authorities are reportedly treating the incident “very seriously” and a multi-agency probe involving the Civil Aviation Authority of Zimbabwe, the Air Force of Zimbabwe, police and intelligence services has been launched.
Presidency spokesman George Charamba declined to discuss the exact nature of the identified threat, saying doing so would “jeopardise investigations currently underway.”
“I can confirm the incident which has affected or menaced many other airports, foremost Gatwick in England. The misdemeanour has to be nipped in the bud,” he said.
Investigators will also be seeking to establish if there is a link to recent unsolved break-ins at the private homes of the president; his son, David, and the offices of his nephew, Tongai Mnangagwa, during which nothing of value was taken.
Shining a laser at airplanes landing or taking off, known as a laser strike, is widespread in Europe and the United States but there are no previously disclosed incidents in Zimbabwe.
High-powered lasers can interfere with pilots, distracting, disorienting, or even temporarily blinding them during critical phases of flight. The United States Federal Aviation Administration (FAA), in a report released in January this year, said the highest number of laser strikes occur at low altitudes and at night when pilots are busy with take-off or landing procedures.
There were 9,652 laser incidents which occurred below 10,000 feet in 2023, the FAA said.
In the United Kingdom where penalties for offenders can result in five-year jail sentences, just over 1,000 laser strikes were recorded, according to the British Airline Pilots Association.
There are no known airplane crashes caused by laser strikes, but they tend to have medical consequences for pilots who are required for safety and health reasons to take an ophthalmology evaluation and go on medical leave after such incidents.
Mnangagwa is in his second and final five-year term as president, but his loyalists want him to stay on at least until 2030, which legal experts say would be unconstitutional.
He maintains that he will retire when his term ends in 2028, but not many are convinced, pointing to his reluctance to kill the growing lobby among his supporters.
The uncertainty is reportedly causing consternation in Zanu PF, especially among supporters of his deputy Constantino Chiwenga, seen as his likely successor.
