Turkiye authorities find crash site of jet carrying Libyan army chief: minister

Türkiye’s interior minister said on Tuesday that authorities had located the wreckage of a plane carrying Libya’s chief of staff, Mohammed Ali Ahmed Al-Haddad, after it went missing shortly after departing Ankara.

Interior Minister Ali Yerlikaya said on X that Turkish gendarmerie teams had located the wreckage of a business jet that departed Ankara’s Esenboga airport for Tripoli.

The aircraft was found around two kilometres south of Kesikkavak village in the Haymana district, about 74 kilometres (45 miles) from Ankara, he added.

The prime minister of Libya’s internationally recognised government said that the Libyan army’s chief of staff, Al-Haddad, died in a plane crash, adding that four others were on the jet as well.

“This followed a tragic and painful incident while they were returning from an official trip from the Turkish city of Ankara. This grave loss is a great loss for the nation, for the military institution, and for all the people,” Libyan Prime Minister Abdulhamid Dbeibah said in a statement.

He said the commander of Libya’s ground forces, the director of its military manufacturing authority, an adviser to the chief of staff, and a photographer from the chief of staff’s office were also on the aircraft.

Earlier, Yerlikaya said that radio contact was lost with a jet carrying Libya’s army chief of staff, Mohammed Ali Ahmed Al-Haddad, shortly after takeoff from the Turkiye capital.

Yerlikaya wrote on X that the jet had taken off at 1710 GMT and radio contact was lost at 1752 GMT.

He said the flight had made a request for an emergency landing while over the Haymana district of Ankara, but that no contact was established after.

Four others were on the jet, he added, while flight tracking data showed other flights being diverted away from Ankara’s Esenboga Airport.

Turkiye’s defence ministry had announced the Libyan chief of staff’s visit earlier, saying he had met with Turkiye Defence Minister Yasar Guler and Turkiye counterpart Selcuk Bayraktaroglu, along with other Turkiye military commanders.

While officials did not say whether the plane had crashed, footage on Turkiye broadcasters showed a flash of light where the jet was said to have lost radio contact.

There was no immediate comment from Libyan officials.