Key Points
- Turkish authorities recovered the cockpit voice recorder and flight data recorder from the crash site
- The private Falcon 50 jet went down near Ankara’s Haymana district after reporting an electrical failure
- Libya’s armed forces chief Mohammed al-Haddad and four aides were killed in the crash
- The aircraft was returning to Tripoli after official meetings with Turkish military officials
- An investigation is under way to determine the cause of the crash
HAYMANA, Türkiye: Turkish authorities found voice recorder and black box from a private jet early on Wednesday that crashed shortly after it took off from the capital Ankara, killing the head of Libya’s armed forces and his four aides.
The Falcon 50 aircraft requested an emergency landing because of electrical failure minutes after it took off but then the contact was lost, Turkish officials said. It was returning to Tripoli.
The plane’s wreckage was located by Turkish security personnel in the Haymana district near Ankara.
Interior Minister Ali Yerlikaya said voice recorder and the flight data recorder (black box) were recovered from the plane, speaking to reporters at the site, according to AFP.
“The examination and evaluation processes of these devices have been initiated by the relevant authorities,” he said.
Lieutenant General Mohammed al-Haddad and four other aides were returning to Tripoli after holding talks in Ankara with Turkish military officials. The plane carried eight passengers including three crew members.
Yerlikaya said the bodies were still at the wreckage area, adding that a 22-member Libyan delegation have arrived in Ankara.
Haddad had been the army’s chief of general staff since August 2020 and was appointed by then-prime minister Fayez al-Sarraj.
Libya is split between a UN-recognised government in Tripoli, led by Prime Minister Abdulhamid Dbeibah, and commander Khalifa Haftar’s administration in the east.
The North African country has been divided since a NATO-backed revolt toppled and killed longtime leader Moamer Kadhafi in 2011.
Turkey has close ties with the UN-backed government in Tripoli, to which it provides economic and military support and there have been frequent visits between both sides.
But Ankara has recently also reached out to the rival administration in the east, with the head of Turkey’s intelligence agency, Ibrahim Kalin, meeting with Haftar in Benghazi in August.
