Landed after airport hours?
 

The hot rumour on the airfield is that the pictured Hawker XP800 landed last night after Wilson Airport closed (tower closed, no ATC, no runway lights, no customs/immigration/ground control) - most definitely not a popular move with the local authorities. Ooops?!

https://cimg8.ibsrv.net/gimg/pprune....5d264f2e58.jpg

https://cimg0.ibsrv.net/gimg/pprune....8e536fec29.jpg

Foxcotte, have you heard any further rumors on this? I did a bit of investigating and found out the following, which makes this VERY interesting.

"Yevgeniy Viktorovich Prigozhin " Пригожин Евгений Викторович" is known as "Putin's Chef/Cook", an oligarch billionaire, owns Concord Management and Consulting and Concord Catering, the primary financial pipelines to the Internet Research Agency, the Russian “Troll Farm.” Special counsel Robert Mueller's office charged Prigozhin with violating US law and interfering in the 2016 election. M-VITO is a 15 seat, twin-engine turbofan, Raytheon/Hawker 125-800XP, built in 2001. The registered owner is Beratex Group Limited/KTC Falcon Limited from the Isle of Man. Originally held registered under N501CT up until 2012 when it was changed to M-VITO for Yevgenly Progozhin." https://virtualglobetrotting.com/map...m/view/google/

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Yevgeny_Prigozhin is also linked to the Wagner Group, a private military contractor active in Syria and the Central African Republic.

The infamous Wagner Group, a controversial Kremlin-linked private military contractor with experience fighting in Ukraine and Syria, is also very active on the ground in CAR. The billionaire allegedly behind it, Yevgeny Prigozhin, is a crony of Russian President Vladimir Putin indicted by the Mueller investigation in the United States for his role funding Moscow's interference in the American elections. Three Russian journalists who traveled to CAR to investigate Wagner’s role in the war-ravaged country were killed under suspicious circumstances. https://www.thedailybeast.com/putins...an-skulduggery

That's a very interesting find, rafiki.

Beratex Group's only business seems to be M-VITO. There's another Beratex, a German textile manufacturer, part of the Bernauer Group, but although it's interesting that the last FR24 track of M-VITO has it departing an airfield in Germany en route to E Africa, it's more likely that Prigozhin also has a company called 'Beratex' and this German company is not connected. Ian Cox https://twitter.com/IanECox has some good reporting on this, and links to investigators who track Russian oligarchs and Putin cronies.

The narrative gap for me, is that there is no documented confirmation (that's I've seen) that M-VITO is owned by Prigozhin. Currently the only info I can find that puts Prigozhin, Beratex and M-VITO together comes from the same source you quote, virtualglobetrotting.com, which simply states it as fact that M-VITO is registered to Beratex and owned by Prigozhin. Doesn't mean it ain't so, but it would be good to have corroborating evidence....

This article from February 2018 also lists the same aircraft as being his.

https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/art...icted-FBI.html

Their evidence being having seen his daughter Instagram account with the same aircraft.

Her account is set to private, but the profile pic shows an aircraft with the same colored double pinstripe.

https://www.instagram.com/polinaprigozhina/

In October, the aircraft made a stop in Lithuania for a repair.

Article reporting, also links to him.

https://www.15min.lt/verslas/naujien...is-667-1043808
https://www.baltictimes.com/putin-li...ds_in_vilnius/

https://www.bloomberg.com/news/featu...ling-in-africa

The instagram profile pic is not the same paint job as on the aircraft in the OP. It shows 3 lines starting just aft of port side door. The OP shows 3 lines much further aft.

The local Daily Nation finally picked up on this story today, with a decently written piece which clarifies the arrival, handling, and departure details of the aircraft.

https://www.nation.co.ke/news/Eyebro...m8z/index.html

15 seat Hawker 800???

What's the surprise? Wiki says 13 max, it's not far out by journalist's standards.