The head of Libya’s armed forces and four other high-ranking military officials di£d on Tuesday night, Dec. 23, when their business jet crashed shortly after taking off from Ankara, officials in Turkey’s capital and Tripoli said.
The wreckage of their Falcon 50 aircraft was located by Turkish security personnel in the Haymana district near Ankara, Turkish Interior Minister Ali Yerlikaya said.
Three crew members were also k!lled.
Libya’s Prime Minister Abdulhamid Dbeibah said on his Facebook page: “It is with deep sadness and great sorrow that we learnt of the de@th of the Libyan army’s chief of general staff, Lieutenant General Mohammed al-Haddad.”
Haddad earlier Tuesday held talks in Ankara with Turkish Defence Minister Yasar Guler, and his Turkish counterpart, Selcuk Bayraktaroglu, and was returning to Tripoli.
Yerlikaya said on X that Haddad’s jet took off from Ankara’s Esenboga airport at 1710 GMT, and “contact was lost” 42 minutes later.
The aircraft issued an emergency landing notification near Haymana — 74 kilometres (45 miles) from Ankara, but contact could not be reestablished, the minister said.
A senior Turkish official said the plane requested an emergency landing because of an electrical failure 16 minutes after it took off.
The jet carried eight passengers, including Haddad, four members of his entourage and three crew members, “reported an emergency to the air traffic control centre due to an electrical failure, asking for an emergency landing,” Burhanettin Duran, head of the presidency’s communications directorate, said on X.
Turkish Justice Minister Yilmaz Tunc said the Ankara chief prosecutor’s office has launched an investigation into the incident.
Several Turkish media outlets broadcast images showing the sky lit up by an explosion not far from the location where the aircraft sent a signal.
Burhan Cicek, a local in Haymana, recalled the moment when the plane crashed.
“I heard a big sound of explosion. It was like a bomb,” he told AFP.
Libya’s ambassador to Ankara was also at the site.
Walid Ellafi, Libyan minister of state for communication and political affairs, told local television channel Libya al-Ahrar that the Turkish government informed his government of the incident.
“We received a call from the Turkish authorities immediately after the incident, reporting that contact with the aircraft had been lost,” the minister said.
“All contact with the aircraft was lost about half an hour after takeoff from Ankara airport due to a technical problem,” he said.
“We are awaiting the conclusions of the Turkish investigation, and it appears that the plane crashed.”
The minister said the others on the aircraft were Haddad’s advisor, Mohammed Al-Assawi, as well as Major General Al-Fitouri Ghraibil, Major General Mohammed Jumaa, and their escort, Mohammed Al-Mahjoub.
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