Libya’s military chief was among eight people killed in a plane crash in Turkey on Tuesday, according to officials from both countries. Five Libyan military officials and three crew members were aboard the private jet when it crashed, leaving no survivors.
Libyan Prime Minister Abdulhamid Dbeibah confirmed the deaths in a social media statement and said the officials died in a tragic accident. Gen. Mohammed al-Haddad, the military’s chief of staff, had been in Ankara for a meeting with Turkish Defense Minister Yasar Güler and other military leaders, according to the Turkish ministry.
Gen. Al-Fitouri Ghraibil, Libya’s head of ground forces; Brig. Gen. Mahmoud al-Qatawi, director of military manufacturing; Mohammed al-Asawi Diab, adviser to the chief of staff; and Mohammed Omar Ahmed Mahjoub, a military photographer, also died in the crash.
Burhanettin Duran, head of communications for the Turkish presidential office, said the three crew members were killed in the crash. The flight reported an emergency due to an electrical failure shortly after 8:30 p.m., he added.
Dbeibah leads the United Nations-backed government of western Libya from Tripoli, the capital. Former dictator Moammar Gaddafi was killed in 2011 during a NATO-backed Arab Spring uprising, with years of civil conflict ensuing; the country has been split since a ceasefire in 2020. Its oil-rich east is controlled by a coalition of factions under the banner of the Libyan National Army.
In a statement, Khalifa Hifter, who leads eastern Libya, extended condolences for the deaths of al-Haddad and Ghraibil, calling it a tragic accident.
Mohamed Menfi, who heads Libya’s Presidential Council, said the aircraft transporting the officials crashed on its way back from the Turkish capital.
The wreckage of the plane was recovered near Kesikkavak, a village about 50 miles southwest of Ankara, according to Turkey’s Interior Minister Ali Yerlikaya.
In an earlier statement, Yerlikaya said the aircraft, a Falcon 50 business jet, departed Ankara’s Esenboga Airport at 8:10 p.m. headed for Tripoli, and that contact was lost as of 8:52 p.m. The plane issued an emergency landing notification but contact could not be re-established afterward, he said.
Libya’s Government of National Unity, which rules the western part of the country, said investigators had been dispatched to Turkey and would organize the transport of the bodies to Libya.
The government declared three days of official mourning.
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