Black box from crashed plane recovered
Turkish authorities discovered the voice recorder and black box from a private jet early Wednesday morning, which tragically crashed shortly after taking off from Ankara. The incident claimed the lives of Libya‘s armed forces chief and his four aides.
According to Turkish officials, the Falcon 50 aircraft had requested an emergency landing due to an electrical failure just minutes after takeoff, but contact was lost shortly thereafter. The plane was en route back to Tripoli.
The wreckage was found by Turkish security teams in the Haymana district, not far from Ankara.
Interior Minister Ali Yerlikaya confirmed that both the voice recorder and the flight data recorder (the black box) were retrieved from the crash site while addressing reporters.
“The examination and evaluation processes of these devices have been initiated by the relevant authorities,” he said.
Lieutenant General Mohammed al-Haddad and four other aides were returning to Tripoli after holding talks in Ankara with Turkish military officials. The plane carried eight passengers including three crew members.
Yerlikaya mentioned that the bodies are still at the crash site and noted that a 22-member delegation from Libya has arrived in Ankara.
Haddad had been serving as the army’s chief of general staff since August 2020, a position he was appointed to by the then-prime minister, Fayez al-Sarraj.
Libya is currently divided between a UN-recognized government in Tripoli, led by Prime Minister Abdulhamid Dbeibah, and the administration of commander Khalifa Haftar in the east.
The North African nation has been in turmoil since a NATO-backed uprising led to the overthrow and death of longtime leader Moamer Kadhafi in 2011.
Turkey maintains strong ties with the UN-backed government in Tripoli, providing both economic and military support, and there have been numerous visits between the two sides.
But Ankara has recently also reached out to the rival administration in the east, with the head of Turkey’s intelligence agency, Ibrahim Kalin, meeting with Haftar in Benghazi in August.
Black box from crashed plane recovered
