The black box and cockpit voice recorder from a private jet that crashed today, killing the head of Libya’s Armed Forces and his four aides, were discovered by Turkish officials.
Minutes after taking off from the Turkish capital of Ankara, the Falcon 50 aircraft experienced an electrical breakdown and requested an emergency landing; however, contact was lost, according to Turkish officials. According to AFP, the aircraft was headed back to Tripoli.
Turkish security forces spotted the wreckage in the Haymana area, which is close to Ankara.
Reporters at the crash scene were informed by Interior Minister Ali Yerlikaya that the voice recorder and flight data recorder (black box) of the aircraft had been retrieved.
He declared, “The examination and evaluation processes of these devices have been initiated.”
Following their discussions with Turkish military authorities in Ankara, Lieutenant General Mohammed al-Haddad and four other aides were on their way back to Tripoli. Three crew members were among the eight passengers on board.
Abdulhamid Dbeibah, the prime minister of Libya, expressed “deep sadness and great sorrow” on the army chief’s passing.
A 22-member Libyan delegation, which included five of the deceased’s relatives, had arrived in Ankara, according to Yerlikaya, who also stated that the bodies were remained at the crash site, which is roughly three square kilometers (one square mile).
“We offer our condolences to their families and pray for God’s mercy upon those who lost their lives in this tragic accident,” he continued.
According to the minister, 408 people from the government’s disaster agency, AFAD, the police, and the health services are on the scene, and drones are transmitting real-time imagery from the region.
The Ankara prosecutor’s office has opened an investigation into the event, according to Turkish officials.
It might take months.
According to Tolga Tuzun Inan of Bahcesehir University in Istanbul, an airplane wouldn’t go entirely dark due to a single electrical failure.
“Such a situation may occur when multiple triggering factors combine with meteorological conditions,” he said to the private NTV television.
He added that the study procedure might take several months and that data from the black box would show what transpired.
Haddad was chosen by then-prime minister Fayez al-Sarraj and had served as the army’s chief of general staff since August 2020.
Libya is divided between Commander Khalifa Haftar’s government in the east and Prime Minister Dbeibah’s UN-recognized government in Tripoli.
Since longstanding leader Muammar Gaddafi was overthrown and killed in 2011 by an uprising supported by NATO, the North African nation has been split.
Turkey has a tight relationship with the Tripoli administration, which is supported militarily and economically by the UN.
However, Ankara has recently made contact with the parallel government in the east as well; in August, Haftar met with Ibrahim Kalin, the head of Turkey’s intelligence service, in Benghazi.
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