Libyan army chief of staff killed in plane crash after Ankara visit

The Libyan army’s chief of staff, Mohammed Ali Ahmed Al-Haddad, was killed on Tuesday when a plane carrying him crashed shortly after departing from Turkiye’s capital, Ankara, Libya’s internationally recognised government confirmed.

Libyan Prime Minister Abdulhamid Dbeibah, in a statement, described the incident as a “tragic and painful loss” for the country, the military institution and the Libyan people. He said the crash occurred while Al-Haddad and others were returning from an official visit to Ankara.

According to Dbeibah, those on board included the commander of Libya’s ground forces, the director of the military manufacturing authority, an adviser to the chief of staff and a photographer from the chief of staff’s office.

Turkiye’s Interior Minister Ali Yerlikaya said the Dassault Falcon 50 jet took off from Ankara’s Esenboga Airport at 5:10pm GMT en route to Tripoli. Radio contact was lost at 5:52pm GMT, after which the wreckage was found near Kesikkavak village in Ankara’s Haymana district.

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Yerlikaya said the aircraft had requested an emergency landing while flying over Haymana, but contact could not be re-established. The cause of the crash was not immediately known.

Turkiye’s defence ministry had earlier announced Al-Haddad’s visit, saying he met Turkish Defence Minister Yasar Guler, Selcuk Bayraktaroglu and other senior military officials. The crash came a day after Turkiye’s parliament approved a two-year extension of the deployment of Turkish troops in Libya.

Turkiye, a Nato member, has provided political and military support to Libya’s Tripoli-based government since 2020 and has signed several agreements with it, including maritime and energy-related accords that have been disputed by Egypt and Greece. Ankara has also recently expanded contacts with Libya’s eastern faction under its “One Libya” policy.

Meanwhile, Turkish authorities have recovered the aircraft’s cockpit voice recorder and flight data recorder. Officials said the plane experienced an electrical failure minutes after takeoff before contact was lost.

Interior Minister Yerlikaya said investigations into the data had begun, adding that the bodies remained at the crash site and that a 22-member Libyan delegation had arrived in Ankara.