ANKARA, Turkey — A private jet carrying Libya’s military chief and four other people crashed after takeoff from Turkey’s capital, Ankara, on Tuesday, killing everyone on board.
The Libyan military chief was in Ankara for high-level defense talks aimed at boosting military cooperation between the two countries and to address regional issues, Turkish officials said.
Libyan Prime Minister Abdul-Hamid Dbeibah confirmed the death of Gen. Muhammad Ali Ahmad al-Haddad and the others, saying in a statement on Facebook that the “tragic accident” took place as the Libyan delegation was “returning from an official trip to Ankara.”
He called it a “great loss” for Libya. Officials in Libya said contact with the plane was lost about half hour into the flight because of a technical malfunction.
Al-Hadad was the top military commander in western Libya. He played a crucial role the U.N.-brokered ongoing efforts to unify Libya’s military, which has split much like Libya’s institutions.
Turkey did not immediately confirm the deaths, only that wreckage of the Falcon 50 type business jet has been found.
Earlier on Tuesday evening, Turkey’s air traffic controllers said they lost contact with the plane, which was en route back to Libya, after takeoff from Esenboga airport.
Turkish Interior Minister Ali Yerlikaya, said in a social media post that the plane took off at 8:30 p.m. and contact was lost 40 minutes later. The plane issued an emergency landing signal near Haymana, a district south of Ankara, before all communication ceased, Yerlikaya said.
Security camera footage aired on local television stations showed the night sky over Haymana suddenly lit up by what appeared to be an explosion.
While in Ankara, al-Haddad had met with Turkish Defense Minister Yasar Guler and other officials.
The airport in Ankara was closed and several flights were diverted to other locations, private NTV news channel reported. Turkey’s Justice Ministry said four prosecutors have been assigned to investigate the crash, a routine step in such incidents.
