Libya’s Top Military Chief, Four Others Killed In Turkey Plane Crash

The head of Libya’s armed forces and four senior officers were killed late on Tuesday after their private jet crashed shortly after leaving Ankara.

The aircraft, a Falcon 50, went down in Haymana, an area outside the Turkish capital, according to officials in Turkey and Libya

Turkish Interior Minister Ali Yerlikaya said security teams later found the wreckage, adding that three crew members on board also lost their lives.

Libya’s Prime Minister, Abdulhamid Dbeibah, confirmed the death of the army chief, Lieutenant General Mohammed al-Haddad, in a statement posted on Facebook.

“It is with deep sadness and great sorrow that we learnt of the death of the Libyan army’s chief of general staff, Lieutenant General Mohammed al-Haddad.” he wrote.

Earlier that day, Haddad had held meetings in Ankara with Turkey’s defence minister, Yasar Guler, and Turkey’s chief of general staff, Selcuk Bayraktaroglu.

The Libyan top military commander was on his way back to Tripoli when the crash happened.

According to Yerlikaya, the jet left Ankara’s Esenboga Airport at 5:10 p.m. GMT.

About 42 minutes later, communication with the plane was suddenly lost.

Before contact ended, the aircraft sent a distress signal requesting an emergency landing near Haymana, roughly 74 kilometres from Ankara.

A senior Turkish official said the crew asked to land urgently after experiencing electrical problems around 16 minutes into the flight.

Burhanettin Duran, head of Turkey’s communications directorate, said the plane was carrying eight people in total:

Haddad, four members of his team, and three crew members.

He explained that the pilot had reported the technical fault to air traffic control before contact was cut off.

Turkey’s justice minister, Yilmaz Tunc, said prosecutors in Ankara have opened an investigation into the crash.

Local residents described hearing a loud explosion in the area.

One eyewitness, Burhan Cicek, said the sound was so powerful it felt like a bomb had gone off.

Some Turkish television stations aired footage showing a bright flash in the sky near where the plane went down.

Libya’s ambassador to Turkey travelled to the crash site, while Libyan officials said they were informed by Ankara shortly after the incident.

Walid Ellafi, Libya’s minister of state for communication and political affairs, said Turkish authorities contacted the Libyan government to report that the aircraft had lost contact due to a technical issue.

He added that communication with the plane ended about 30 minutes after takeoff and that officials were waiting for the outcome of Turkey’s investigation.

Ellafi confirmed that those killed alongside Haddad included his adviser, Mohammed Al-Assawi, Major General Al-Fitouri Ghraibil, Major General Mohammed Jumaa, and an escort, Mohammed Al-Mahjoub.

Haddad had served as Libya’s chief of general staff since August 2020, after being appointed by former prime minister Fayez al-Sarraj.

Libya remains politically divided, with a UN-recognised government based in Tripoli under Dbeibah, and a rival administration in the east led by Khalifa Haftar.

The country has struggled with instability since the 2011 uprising that removed and killed longtime ruler Muammar Gaddafi.

Turkey maintains strong political and military ties with the Tripoli-based government and regularly hosts Libyan officials.

In recent months, however, Ankara has also made contact with eastern authorities, including a meeting in August between Turkey’s intelligence chief, Ibrahim Kalin, and Haftar in Benghazi.

KanyiDaily had also reported how Ghana was hit with tragedy following a deadly military helicopter crash in the Ashanti Region that claimed the lives of eight people, including two senior government ministers.