A private jet that crashed on Tuesday, killing Libya’s army chief of staff and seven others on board, had reported an electrical fault and requested an emergency landing shortly before contact was lost, a Turkish official said yesterday.
The Dassault Falcon 50 jet, which took off from Ankara Esenboga Airport at 5:17pm on Tuesday for Tripoli, informed air traffic control at 5:33pm of an emergency caused by an electrical malfunction, said Turkish Deputy Minister of Foreign Affars Burhanettin Duran, who heads the government’s communications directorate.
Search teams found the black box of the plane early yesterday, Turkish Minister of the Interior Ali Yerlikaya said.
Photo: Reuters
Libya’s internationally recognized government said that the dead included Lieutenant General Mohammed Ali Ahmed al-Haddad, the army chief of staff, and four members of his entourage.
The delegation was on its way back to Tripoli after holding high-level defense talks in Ankara aimed at boosting military cooperation between the two countries.
Libyan Prime Minister Abdulhamid Dbeibah called it a “great loss for the nation.”
Three crew members were also killed, Turkish officials said.
In Libya, divided between administrations in the west and east, authorities on both sides announced a three-day period of mourning and lowered flags to half mast.
Mohammed al-Menfi, head of the Tripoli-based Presidential Council, said that the deputy chief of staff would assume al-Haddad’s duties until a new chief is appointed.
“We want to emphasize the continuity of operations as a military institution,” Menfi told Istanbul-based TV channel Libya Alahrar.
Al-Haddad, from the coastal city of Misrata about 200km east of Tripoli, was appointed chief of staff in 2020.
Air traffic control had redirected the aircraft back toward Esenboga Airport and emergency measures were initiated, but the jet disappeared from radar at 5:36pm while descending for landing and contact was lost, Duran said.
“The aircraft’s voice recorder was found at 0245 [2:45am] and the flight data recorder at 0320 [3:20am]. Examination and analysis of these devices have begun,” Yerlikaya told reporters at the crash site near Ankara.
Yerlikaya earlier said that the aircraft had requested an emergency landing while flying over Haymana, adding that its wreckage was found near Kesikkavak village.
Additional reporting by AP
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