Libya’s army chief of staff and four other officials were killed when a Maltese-registered charter aircraft crashed near Ankara, Turkey, late on Tuesday.
On board the aircraft were General Muhammad Ali Ahmad al-Haddad, his advisor, Mohammed Al-Assawi, as well as Major General Al-Fitouri Ghraibil, Major General Mohammed Jumaa, and their escort, Mohammed Al-Mahjoub. No Maltese crew were believed to be on board.
Turkish Interior Minister Ali Yerlikaya said the plane had taken off from Ankara’s Esenboga Airport at 9.10pm en route to Tripoli, and that radio contact was lost at half an hour later.
He said rescuers found the plane’s wreckage near the Kesikkavak village in Ankara’s Haymana district. He added that the Dassault Falcon 50-type jet had made a request for an emergency landing while over Haymana, but that no contact was established.
The Maltese-registered, Harmony Jets aircraft which crashed near Ankara. Shutterstock photo.Turkish Justice Minister Yilmaz Tunc said the Ankara chief prosecutor’s office has launched an investigation into the incident.
Several Turkish media outlets broadcast images showing the sky lit up by an explosion not far from the location where the aircraft sent a signal.
“It is with deep sadness and great sorrow that we learnt of the death of the Libyan army’s chief of general staff,” Mohammed al-Haddad, Prime Minister Abdulhamid Dbeibah said on his Facebook page.
Maltese Home Affairs Minister Byron Camilleri said he was “deeply saddened” by the loss of General Al-Haddad who he had met on different occasions.
“Through our various meetings in Libya, we built an excellent relationship based on mutual respect and a commitment to regional stability,” he said in a post on X.
Turkish Interior Minister Ali Yerlikaya said his country’s gendarmerie had found the wreckage of the plane, which crashed shortly after taking off from Ankara.
Haddad had been the army’s chief of general staff since August 2020 and was appointed by then-prime minister Fayez al-Sarraj.
Dbeibah described their deaths as a “tragic loss”, adding: “We have lost men who served their country with loyalty and dedication and were examples of discipline, responsibility and national commitment.”
The crash is believed to have involved a Falcon three-engine jet private charter aircraft, operated by Harmony Jets, which is based at Malta airport. Founded in 2017, Harmony Jets Limited is a Maltese private aviation company that operates its own fleet of business jets and provides charter, aircraft management, maintenance, and related aviation services.
Gen al-Hadad was the top military commander in western Libya. He played a crucial role in the UN-brokered ongoing efforts to unify Libya’s military, which has split much like Libya’s institutions.
Plane wreckage at the crash site near Ankara. AFP