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.
“The examination and evaluation processes of these devices have been initiated by the relevant authorities,” he said.
Lt. Gen. 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-recognized 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 Muammar Qaddafi in 2011.
Turkiye 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 Turkiye’s intelligence agency, Ibrahim Kalin, meeting with Haftar in Benghazi in August.
