Jet carrying Libyan army chief crashes after departing Ankara
The jet lost contact after departing Ankara, with Turkish authorities launching search and rescue efforts.
ANKARA — A private passenger jet crashed Tuesday shortly after departing Ankara’s Esenboga International Airport, killing Libya’s army chief, Mohammed Ali Al Haddad, and four other Libyan army officials onboard.
Libyan Prime Minister Abdul Hamid Dbeibah confirmed the death of Haddad and his accompanying delegation in a statement on X. Dbeibah described the crash as a “great loss to the homeland.”
The prime minister identified the four others killed in the crash as Al-Fitouri Grebeel, chief of staff of the ground forces; Mahmoud al-Qutawi, director of Libya’s Military Manufacturing Agency; Muhammad al-Assawi Diab, an adviser to the Libyan army’s chief of staff; and Muhammad Omar Ahmed Mahjoub, a photographer in the chief of staff’s media office.
The aircraft also carried three crew members, according to Turkey’s state-run Anadolu Agency.
Turkish Interior Minister Ali Yerlikaya confirmed later Tuesday that search and rescue crews have reached the wreckage of the plane. Footage released by Anadolu appeared to show the aircraft going down near Ankara, followed by an explosion.
“Contact was lost at 20:52 with a Falcon 50 business jet bearing tail number 9H-DFJ that took off from Ankara’s Esenboga Airport at 20:10 this evening bound for Tripoli,” Yerlikaya wrote on X.
He added that ahead of the loss of contact, an emergency landing notification was received from the aircraft in the vicinity of Ankara’s Haymana district, but contact could not be reestablished afterward.
Turkey’s Justice Minister Yilmaz Tunc separately said that an investigation was launched into the crash.
Earlier Tuesday, Haddad and his entourage had met with Turkish Defense Minister Yasar Guler and Selcuk Bayraktaroglu, the Turkish army’s chief of staff. Grebeel, the commander of Libyan ground forces, also accompanied him during the visit.
Haddad was appointed chief of the general staff by Libya’s UN-recognized Tripoli government in August 2020. His visit coincided with the Turkish parliament’s approval of an extension of the mandate allowing the deployment of Turkish troops to Libya for another two years late Monday.
This breaking story has been updated.
