Libya‘s Prime Minister Abdulhamid Dbeibah confirmed the death of Libyan army chief of staff Mohammed al-Haddad after his plane crashed on its way home from official talks in the Turkish capital.
“It is with deep sadness and great regret that we have learned of the death of the chief of staff of the Libyan army,” Dbeibah wrote on social media, describing the loss as “huge” for the nation, Turkish news agency Anatolia reported. Libyan officials said contact with the plane was lost about half an hour after take-off, apparently due to a technical failure.
The private jet carrying Al-Haddad and four other people crashed after take-off from the Turkish capital. The plane lost all radio communication after issuing an alert requesting an emergency landing while flying near the Haymana district south of Ankara, according to Turkish officials.
Turkey had so far not officially confirmed the deaths, but had reported finding the wreckage of the Falcon 50 private jet in which the general was flying. CCTV footage captured the moment of the crash outside Ankara, after the plane took off from Esenboğa International Airport.
The plane requested an emergency landing and disappeared from radar
Turkish Presidential Communications Director Burhanettin Duran said the aircraft carrying Al-Haddad, four members of his delegation and three crew members, took off at 20:17 local time (18:17 CET) and issued an emergency alert at 20:33 reporting an electrical failure. The aircraft then requested an emergency landing and was redirected back to Esenboğa, where operations were temporarily suspended, while emergency ground operations were prepared.
The aircraft then began the emergency descent manoeuvre, but disappeared from radar at 20:36 and all communication with the aircraft was lost. Interior Ministry search teams were immediately dispatched to the area of possible impact, and the wreckage was located during night operations, Duran said.
Al-Haddad was the top military commander in western Libya and had played a key role in UN-backed efforts to unify the country’s armed forces, divided as Libya is, controlled in the west by the UN-recognised Tripoli-based Government of National Unity (GNU) and in the east by the Tobruk/Al Baida-based interim government, supported by Egypt and other countries and led by the head of the so-called Libyan National Army, Khalifa Haftar.
The Libyan army chief had arrived in the Turkish capital on Tuesday to hold several high-level meetings in Ankara as an official guest of the Turkish Chief of General Staff, general Selçuk Bayraktaroğlu. The Turkish parliament had just yesterday approved a two-year extension of the mandate for the presence of Turkish troops in Libya.
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Edited and reviewed by:
Pablo Gómez is a specialist in Turkey and has been editor-in-chief of Hispanatolia since 2011. He has been analysing current affairs and geopolitics in Turkey and the surrounding region since 2006.
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