General Mohammed Ali Ahmed al-Haddad, military chief of staff of Libya's UN-recognised Government of National Unity, was killed along with seven others when their plane crashed near Ankara on Tuesday, Libyan and Turkish officials said.
The Falcon 50 business jet crashed in the Haymana district some 70 kilometres south of Ankara shortly after takeoff from Esenboga International Airport, killing all eight people on board.
Libyan Prime Minister Abdul-Hamid Dbeibah, who leads the Government of National Unity based in Tripoli, confirmed the deaths in a statement on Facebook on Tuesday evening.
"It is with deep sadness and great sorrow that we learnt of the death of the Libyan army's chief of general staff, Lieutenant General Mohammed al-Haddad," Dbeibah said, calling the incident a "tragic accident".
Key military officials among those killed
The aircraft departed Esenboga Airport at 8:10 pm local time on Tuesday bound for Tripoli, according to Turkish Interior Minister Ali Yerlikaya.
At 8:33 pm, the plane informed air traffic control of an emergency caused by an electrical malfunction and requested an emergency landing, according to Burhanettin Duran, head of Turkey's Presidency Communications Directorate.
Air traffic control redirected the aircraft back toward Esenboga Airport and emergency measures were initiated, but the jet disappeared from radar at 8:36 pm while descending for the emergency landing, Duran said in a statement on Wednesday.
Contact with the aircraft was lost approximately 40 minutes after takeoff, officials said.
Security camera footage aired on local television showed the night sky over Haymana lighting up with what appeared to be an explosion.
Turkish search and rescue teams located the wreckage near the village of Kesikkavak. There were no survivors.
Four other senior Libyan military officials died in the crash alongside al-Haddad, including General Al-Fitouri Ghraibil, head of Libya's ground forces, Brigadier General Mahmoud Al-Qatawi, director of the Military Manufacturing Authority, an advisor to the chief of staff and a military photographer.
Three crew members also died in the crash. Turkish officials said the jet was registered in Malta and had been leased. The identities of the crew members were not immediately released.
Investigation under way
Turkey's Justice Ministry said four prosecutors have been assigned to investigate the crash. The ministry said on Wednesday that the aircraft's black box had been recovered.
"The examination and evaluation processes of these devices have been initiated by the relevant authorities," Interior Minister Yerlikaya told reporters at the crash site.
Libya has announced it will send a team to Ankara to work with Turkish authorities on investigating the crash. Walid Ellafi, state minister of political affairs and communication for the Government of National Unity, told Libyan broadcaster Libya Alahrar that it was not clear when a crash report would be ready.
Ankara's Esenboga Airport was temporarily closed following the incident and several flights were diverted to other locations.
Turkish officials told Al Jazeera that initial investigations have ruled out sabotage and instead point to a technical failure as the cause of the crash.
General Haftar offers condolences
Libya has been divided between rival administrations since the 2011 NATO-backed uprising that toppled and killed longtime ruler Muammar Gaddafi.
The country is split between the UN-recognised Government of National Unity in Tripoli, led by Dbeibah, and a rival administration in eastern Libya led by military commander Khalifa Haftar.
Turkey has been allied with Libya's government in the west, providing economic and military support, though Ankara has recently taken steps to improve ties with the eastern-based government as well.
General Khalifa Haftar, who controls eastern Libya, issued a statement expressing his "deep sorrow over this tragic loss" and extended condolences for the deaths of al-Haddad and Ghraibil.
The House of Representatives in Benghazi, which is aligned with the eastern administration, also offered condolences to the families of those killed.
Dbeibah's Government of National Unity announced three days of official mourning across Libya.
Al-Haddad was the top military commander in western Libya and played a key role in ongoing UN-brokered efforts to unify Libya's military, which has been split along with the country's institutions.
He had been the army's chief of general staff since August 2020, appointed by then-Prime Minister Fayez al-Sarraj.
The Libyan delegation was in Ankara for high-level defence talks aimed at strengthening military cooperation between the two countries.
While in Ankara, al-Haddad met with Turkish Defence Minister Yaşar Güler, Turkish Chief of General Staff General Selçuk Bayraktaroğlu and other senior Turkish military commanders, according to Turkey's Ministry of National Defence.
The visit came one day after Turkey's parliament approved extending the mandate of Turkish troops serving in Libya for another two years. Turkey deployed troops following a 2019 security and military cooperation agreement reached between Ankara and the Tripoli-based government.
