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—
Military Commander
Libya
and four other senior military officials died after the business jet they were on crashed shortly after takeoff from Ankara,
Türkiye
, on Tuesday (23/12) evening local time.
Turkish Interior Minister Ali Yerlikaya reported that the wreckage of the Falcon 50 aircraft carrying Libyan military officials was discovered by Turkish security forces in the Haymana district, near Ankara.Three crew members were also reported to have died in the incident.
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Meanwhile, Libyan Prime Minister Abdulhamid Dbeibah also confirmed and conveyed the sad news via a post on Facebook.
“It is with deep sorrow and great sadness that we receive the news of the passing of the Chief of the General Staff of the Libyan Army, Lieutenant General Mohammed Al Haddad.”
Earlier on Tuesday, Haddad held a meeting in Ankara with Turkish Defense Minister Yasar Guler and his Turkish counterpart, Selcuk Bayraktaroglu, before leaving for Tripoli.
The private jet that Haddad was on took off from Ankara’s Esenboga Airport at 1710 GMT and “contact was lost” 42 minutes later.
The plane sent a notification requesting an emergency landing near Haymana, about 74 kilometers from Ankara, but communications could not be restored.
A senior Turkish official said the plane requested an emergency landing due to an electrical system failure 16 minutes after takeoff.
The jet was carrying eight people, including Haddad, four members of his entourage, as well as three crew members who “reported an emergency to the air traffic control center due to electrical problems and requested an emergency landing,” Burhanettin Duran, head of Turkey’s Presidential Communications Directorate, said in X.
Meanwhile, Turkish Justice Minister Yilmaz Tunc said Ankara’s Prosecutor General’s Office had opened an investigation into the incident.
A number of Turkish media broadcast images showing the sky lit up by an explosion not far from the location of the plane’s last signal.
A Haymana resident, Burhan Cicek, recalled the moments the plane crashed.
“I heard a big explosion. Like a bomb,” he said
AFP
.
Libya’s ambassador to Ankara was also at the scene.
Walid Ellafi, Libya’s Minister of State for Communications and Political Affairs, told local Libyan television station al-Ahrar that the Turkish government had informed the Libyan government about the incident.
“We received a call from Turkish authorities immediately after the incident, reporting that contact with the plane had been lost,” he said.
“All contact with the plane was lost about half an hour after taking off from Ankara airport due to technical problems,” he said.
“We are waiting for the results of the Turkish investigation, and it appears that the plane crashed.”
Ellafi said other passengers on the plane included Haddad’s advisor, Mohammed Al Assawi, as well as Major General Al Fitouri Ghraibil, Major General Mohammed Jumaa, and their bodyguard, Mohammed Al Mahjoub.
Haddad has served as Chief of the General Staff of the Libyan Army since August 2020 and was appointed by the then Prime Minister, Fayez Al Sarraj.
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