Proflight Chief Executive arrested
The Times of Zambia in a front page feature on 23 December 2005 reported that Anthony Irwin and another person had been arrested by Zambia’s Drug Enforcement Commission. The two have been charged with the theft of a PA18-150 Supercub belonging to the Zambia Wildlife Authority (ZAWA) and money laundering. They are expected to appear in court in the near future. Tony Irwin is the Chief Executive of Proflight.
Tony Irwin was a pilot with Zambia Airways and founded Proflight about 10 years ago. A year ago Carl Irwin, founder of Zambeef and Tony’s brother, and Richard Calder from Zimbabwe joined Tony Irwin as investors in Proflight. This company has had its share of problems in the past. Its C206 flown by Jock Flyer went down three years ago and a year ago its Baron (at that time the only Proflight aircraft still operating along with a leased Chieftain) did a wheels-up at Jeki. These events were covered on Pprune. Proflight’s own Chieftain was in South Africa for nearly two years apparently due to engine problems and shortage of funds to correct it. Jock Flyer made an interesting post on this forum regarding Proflight’s maintenance.
Just last month Proflight gave presentations in different Zambian towns to announce an expansion of numbers of planes and of services commencing in January. It sounded like things had changed for the better and Proflight’s future looked good. This latest news item could hardly have come at a worse time!