ANKARA, Turkey, Dec 24— A private jet carrying Libya’s military chief crashed near Ankara on Tuesday, killing all eight people on board, including four senior officers, Libyan and Turkish officials said.
The aircraft went down after departing Ankara’s Esenboga Airport, with Libyan authorities citing a technical malfunction as the likely cause of the crash.
Among the dead was Gen. Muhammad Ali Ahmad al-Haddad, the top military commander in western Libya and a key figure in United Nations-backed efforts to unify the country’s divided armed forces.
Libyan Prime Minister Abdul-Hamid Dbeibah confirmed the deaths and described the incident as a national tragedy. “This is a great loss for Libya,” he said in a Facebook post.
The four other officers killed were Gen. Al-Fitouri Ghraibil, head of Libya’s ground forces; Brig. Gen. Mahmoud al-Qatawi, chief of the military manufacturing authority; Mohammed al-Asawi Diab, adviser to the chief of staff; and Mohammed Omar Ahmed Mahjoub, a military photographer. The identities of the three crew members were not immediately released.
Turkish Interior Minister Ali Yerlikaya said air traffic controllers lost contact with the Falcon 50 jet about 40 minutes after takeoff. “The aircraft sent an emergency signal near Haymana,” he said, adding that communication was then cut off.
According to Burhanettin Duran, head of Turkey’s presidential communications office, the plane reported an electrical failure and requested an emergency landing. “Preparations were made at Esenboga Airport, but the plane vanished from radar during descent,” he said.
The wreckage was later located near Kesikkavak village, south of Ankara. Footage broadcast on local television showed a flash in the night sky believed to be from the crash.
The Libyan delegation had traveled to Ankara for defense meetings a day after Turkey’s parliament approved a two-year extension of the mandate for Turkish troops stationed in Libya.
Turkey’s Justice Ministry said prosecutors have opened an investigation, while Libya announced it would dispatch a team to cooperate with Turkish authorities.
Libya has remained divided since the 2011 uprising that toppled longtime ruler Moammar Gadhafi, with rival administrations in the east and west backed by foreign powers. Turkey has been a key ally of the western-based government but has recently sought closer ties with the east as well.
