Libya’s Prime Minister Abdul-Hamid Dbeibah confirmed the death of Libyan military chief Muhammad Ali Ahmad al-Haddad in a plane crash in Turkey on Tuesday.
Libyan Military Chief Dies in Turkey Plane Crash
Turkey’s interior minister said air traffic controllers lost contact with a Dassault Falcon 50-type jet carrying al-Haddad and others after a visit to Turkey.
The plane departed from Ankara’s Esenboga Airport at 8:10 p.m. local time, according to Ali Yerlikaya. Contact with the jet was lost 40 minutes after takeoff, he said.
Burhanettin Duran, head of the Turkish presidency’s communications directorate, said the private jet reported a technical failure and requested an emergency landing.
The plane subsequently lost contact with air traffic control before crashing 70 kilometers (43.5 miles) south of Ankara.
Dbeibah said in a statement on Facebook that the “tragic accident” occurred as the Libyan delegation was “returning from an official trip to Ankara,” adding that it was “a great loss” for Libya.
The other passengers on board were identified as Al-Haddad’s advisor Mohammed Al-Asawi Diab, Major General Al-Fitouri Ghraibil, advisor Mahmoud al-Qatiwi, and photographer Mohammed Omar Ahmed Mahjoub.
Turkish authorities said the plane’s three crew members were also killed in the crash.
The plane’s black box was recovered on Wednesday from the crash site, where investigators are probing the incident, Turkey’s Interior Minister said.
Turkey’s Transport Minister Abdulkadir Uraloglu later said that the black box would be analysed “in a neutral country.”
Libya has been ravaged by civil war since the fall of Moammer Gadhafi in 2011. The North African country has suffered from inner power struggles, also involving foreign states, with Dbeibah’s government based in the west, while Prime Minister Osama Hammad’s rival government, which has Russia’s support, located in the east.
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