Turkish authorities recovered the voice recorder and black box of a private jet that crashed shortly after takeoff from Ankara, killing the head of Libya’s armed forces and four of his associates, on Wednesday morning.
The Falcon 50 plane requested an emergency landing minutes after takeoff, but contact was soon lost, Turkish officials said. The aircraft was returning to Tripoli.
The wreckage of the plane was found by Turkish security teams in the Haymana district, near Ankara.
Interior Minister Ali Yerlikaya told reporters that the voice recorder and flight recorder (black box) were retrieved from the plane.
– The processes of examination and evaluation of these devices have been started by the competent authorities – he added.
Lt. Col. Mohammed al-Haddad and four of his associates were returning to Tripoli after talks in Ankara with Turkish military officials. The plane was carrying eight people, including three crew members.
Yerlikaya said the bodies are still at the crash site, and a 22-member Libyan delegation has arrived in Ankara. Haddad has been the Chief of the General Staff of the Libyan Army since August 2020, and he was appointed to that position by then Prime Minister Fayez al-Sarraj.
Libya is divided between the UN-recognized government in Tripoli, led by Prime Minister Abdulhamid Dbeibah, and the administration of Commander Khalifa Haftar in the east.
The North African country has been divided since 2011, when a NATO-backed rebellion toppled and killed longtime leader Muammar Gaddafi.
Turkey has close ties to the UN-backed government in Tripoli, providing it with economic and military aid, with frequent reciprocal visits. Recently, Ankara has also established contacts with the rival administration in the east, with the head of Turkey’s intelligence service, Ibrahim Kalin, meeting with Haftar in Benghazi in August.
(Vijesti.ba)
