Investigators probe Turkey plane crash that killed Libyan military officers

Search teams in Turkey on Wednesday recovered cockpit voice recorders and flight data from a plane crash that killed eight people, including the military chief of western Libya, as efforts to recover the victims’ remains were still underway, Turkey’s interior minister said.

The private plane carrying General Muhammad Ali Ahmad al-Haddad, four other military officers and three crew members crashed on Tuesday after taking off from Turkey’s capital Ankara, killing everyone on board. Libyan officials said the cause of the crash was a technical malfunction of the plane.

The high-level Libyan delegation was returning to Tripoli after holding defense talks in Ankara aimed at boosting military cooperation between the two countries.

Turkish Interior Minister Ali Yerlikaya told reporters at the crash site that wreckage was scattered over an area covering three square kilometers (more than a square mile), complicating recovery efforts. Turkey’s forensic medicine authorities are working to recover and identify the remains, he said.

A delegation of 22 people, including five family members, arrived from Libya early Wednesday to help with the investigation, he said.

Tripoli-based Libyan Prime Minister Abdul-Hamid Dbeibah confirmed the deaths on Tuesday, describing the crash on Facebook as a “tragic accident” and a “great loss” for Libya.

Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan had a phone call with Dbeibah, during which he conveyed his condolences and expressed regret over the deaths, his office said.

Later, the Turkish leader also offered his condolences during a televised speech, expressing his solidarity with Libya.

“An investigation has been launched into this tragic incident that deeply saddens us and our ministries will provide information on its progress,” Erdogan said.

Al-Hadad was the top military commander in western Libya and played a crucial role in the current, UN-mediated efforts to unify Libya’s army, which has been divided, like other institutions in the country.

The other four military officers who died in the crash were Gen. Al-Fitouri Ghraibil, head of Libya’s ground forces, Brig.-Gen. Gen. Mahmoud Al-Qatawi, who headed the military manufacturing authority, Mohammed Al-Asawi Diab, advisor to the chief of staff, and Mohammed Omar Ahmed Mahjoub, military photographer from the chief of staff’s office.

The identities of the three crew members were not immediately released.

Turkish officials said the Falcon 50-type business jet took off from Ankara’s Esenboga airport at 8:30 p.m. and that contact was lost about 40 minutes later. The plane notified air traffic control of an electrical failure and requested an emergency landing. The plane was redirected back to Esenboga, where preparations for landing began.

However, the plane disappeared from radar while descending to make an emergency landing, the Turkish presidential communications office said.

The Libyan government declared a three-day period of national mourning. Flags will fly at half-mast in all state institutions, as announced by the government on Facebook.

The wreckage of the plane was found near the village of Kesikkavak, in Haymana, a district about 45 kilometers south of Ankara.

At the crash site, search and recovery teams intensified their operations on Wednesday after a night of heavy rain and fog, the state-run Anadolu Agency reported. Gendarmerie police cordoned off the area while the Turkish disaster management agency, AFAD, set up a mobile coordination center. Due to the muddy terrain, specialized vehicles such as tracked ambulances were deployed.

Türkiye has assigned four prosecutors to lead the investigation, and Yerlikaya said Turkish search and recovery teams included 408 people.