HAYMANA/TRIPOLI: Turkish authorities on Wednesday found the cockpit voice recorder and black box from a private jet that crashed killing the head of Libya’s armed forces and his four aides.

The Falcon 50 aircraft requested an emergency landing because of an electrical failure minutes after it took off from the Turkish capital Ankara on Tuesday, but contact was lost, Turkish officials said. The plane was returning to Tripoli.

The wreckage was located by Turkish security personnel in the Haymana district near Ankara.

Interior Minister Ali Yerlikaya told reporters at the crash site that the plane’s voice recorder and the flight data recorder (black box) had been recovered.

“The examination and evaluation processes of these devices have been initiated,” he said.

Erdogan offeres condolences over loss of lives

Turkey’s Transport Minister Abdulkadir Uraloglu said later on X: “The analysis of the voice recorder and flight data recorder to determine the cause of the aircraft’s crash will be carried out in a neutral country.” The findings would be shared “with our nation and the entire world with full transparency”, he added.

People on either side of the divide cutting through Libya grieved on Wednesday for the head of the country’s armed forces, who was killed when his plane crashed in Turkey.

General Mohammed al-Haddad and his four aides died on Tuesday after a visit to Ankara, with Turkish officials saying an electrical failure caused their plane to crash less than 15 minutes after takeoff.

“It will be hard to find a man of his calibre,” Nasreddine al-Maghribi said at a cafe in the Libyan capital, Tripoli.

Haddad “enjoyed great popularity in the east and west of the country, and we had hoped that he would play a key role in the leadership of a united Libyan army”, said Maghribi, who is in his sixties.

Analysis ‘may take months’

Lieutenant General Mohammed al-Haddad and four other aides were returning to Tripoli after holding talks in Ankara with Turkish military officials. There were eight people aboard the plane, including three crew members.

Libya’s Prime Minister Abdulhamid Dbeibah expressed “deep sadness and great sorrow” over the death of the army chief.

Yerlikaya said the bodies were still at the crash site, which covers approximately three square kilometres (one square mile), adding that a 22-member Libyan delegation, including five relatives of the deceased, had arrived in Ankara.

“We pray for God’s mercy upon those who lost their lives in this tragic accident and extend our condolences to their families,” he added.

A total of 408 personnel from the government’s disaster agency AFAD, police, and health services are at the scene, the minister said, while the real-time imagery from the area is being relayed by drones.

Turkish officials said the Ankara prosecutor’s office has launched an investigation into the incident.

Tolga Tuzun Inan of Istanbul-based Bahcesehir University said a single electrical failure would not leave an aircraft completely dark.

“When multiple triggering factors combine with meteorological conditions, such a situation may occur,” he told the private NTV broadcaster.

He said data from the black box would reveal what happened, but cautioned that the analysis process could take several months.

Erdogan’s condolences

Haddad had been the army’s chief of general staff since August 2020 and was appointed by then-prime minister Fayez al-Sarraj.

President Recep Tayyip Erdogan offered condolences over the loss of lives during a phone call with Prime Minister Dbeibah, his office said.

Libya is split between a UN-recognised government in Tripoli, led by Dbeibah, and commander Khalifa Haftar’s administration in the east.

Published in Dawn, December 25th, 2025