ANKARA, Turkey – Turkish authorities have recovered the black box and cockpit voice recorder from a private jet that crashed on Wednesday. The crash killed Libya’s armed forces chief, Lieutenant General Mohammed al-Haddad, and four of his aides.
The Falcon 50 aircraft requested an emergency landing due to electrical failure shortly after taking off from Ankara. Contact with the plane was lost as it was returning to Tripoli, Turkish officials said.
The wreckage was located in the Haymana district near Ankara. Interior Minister Ali Yerlikaya confirmed that both the voice recorder and the black box were retrieved. “The examination and evaluation processes of these devices have been initiated,” he said.
Eight people were on board, including three crew members. The Libyan delegation had been returning from talks in Ankara with Turkish military officials. Libya’s Prime Minister Abdulhamid Dbeibah expressed “deep sadness and great sorrow” over the deaths.
Minister Yerlikaya added that the crash site covers approximately three square kilometers. A 22-member Libyan delegation, including five relatives of the deceased, arrived in Ankara. Authorities deployed 408 personnel from the disaster agency AFAD, police, and health services to manage the site. Drones are providing real-time imagery of the area.
The Ankara prosecutor’s office has launched an official investigation. Yerlikaya noted that analyzing data from the black box could take several months. “When multiple triggering factors combine with meteorological conditions, such a situation may occur,” he told reporters.
Lieutenant General al-Haddad had been Libya’s army chief since August 2020, appointed by then-Prime Minister Fayez al-Sarraj. Libya remains politically divided, with a UN-recognized government in Tripoli and Khalifa Haftar’s administration in the east.
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Turkey maintains strong ties with the Tripoli government, providing economic and military support, while recently engaging with eastern authorities as well. Analysts say the findings from the black box will be crucial to understanding the cause of this tragic accident.
