Libya Army Chief Among Eight Killed in Business Jet Crash Near Ankara
Falcon 50 goes down after reporting electrical failure shortly after takeoff from Turkey’s capital; investigation launched.
ERBIL (Kurdistan24) — Libya’s chief of general staff, Lieutenant General Mohammed al-Haddad, and four other senior military officials were killed late Tuesday when their business jet crashed near Ankara shortly after departing the Turkish capital, officials in Turkey and Libya said.
The wreckage of the Falcon 50 aircraft was located in the Haymana district, about 74 kilometers south of Ankara, according to Turkish Interior Minister Ali Yerlikaya. Three crew members were also killed, bringing the total death toll to eight.
Libyan Prime Minister Abdulhamid Dbeibah confirmed Haddad’s death in a statement posted on Facebook, expressing “deep sadness and great sorrow” over the loss of the army’s top military official.
Haddad had earlier held talks in Ankara with Turkish Defense Minister Yasar Guler and his Turkish counterpart, Selcuk Bayraktaroglu, and was returning to Tripoli at the time of the crash.
Yerlikaya said the jet took off from Ankara’s Esenboga Airport at 5:10 p.m. GMT and contact was lost 42 minutes later. The aircraft had issued an emergency landing notification near Haymana, but communication could not be reestablished.
A senior Turkish official said the plane requested an emergency landing due to an electrical failure just 16 minutes after takeoff. Burhanettin Duran, head of Turkey’s presidency communications directorate, said on X that the passengers reported the emergency to air traffic control before the crash.
Turkish Justice Minister Yilmaz Tunc said the Ankara chief prosecutor’s office has opened an investigation into the incident.
Several Turkish media outlets broadcast footage showing the sky illuminated by an explosion near the site where the aircraft last transmitted a signal. A local resident, Burhan Cicek, described the impact as “like a bomb.”
Libya’s ambassador to Ankara was present at the crash site. Walid Ellafi, Libya’s minister of state for communication and political affairs, said Turkish authorities notified Tripoli immediately after contact with the aircraft was lost.
“All contact with the aircraft was lost about half an hour after takeoff from Ankara airport due to a technical problem,” Ellafi said, adding that Libya was awaiting the conclusions of the Turkish investigation.
The other victims included Haddad’s adviser, Mohammed Al-Assawi, Major General Al-Fitouri Ghraibil, Major General Mohammed Jumaa, and their escort, Mohammed Al-Mahjoub.
Haddad had served as Libya’s chief of general staff since August 2020, having been appointed by then-prime minister Fayez al-Sarraj.
Libya has remained divided since the 2011 NATO-backed uprising that toppled and killed longtime ruler Muammar Gaddafi, with a UN-recognized government in Tripoli led by Dbeibah and a rival administration in the east headed by commander Khalifa Haftar.
Turkey maintains close political, economic, and military ties with the Tripoli-based government and has hosted frequent high-level exchanges. In recent months, Ankara has also engaged with eastern authorities, including a meeting in August between Turkish intelligence chief Ibrahim Kalin and Haftar in Benghazi.