ERBIL, Kurdistan Region - Libya’s government has declared three days of national mourning following the death of the chief of the general staff of the Libyan army, Lieutenant General Mohammed Al-Haddad, and four other senior military officials in a plane crash near the Turkish capital, Ankara.
In a statement reported by the Libyan News Agency late Tuesday, the Libyan government said "flags will be flown at half-mast at all state institutions and official ceremonies will be suspended."
The government confirmed that the victims were returning from an official mission to Turkey when their aircraft crashed.
The statement added that Libyan Prime Minister Abdul Hamid Dbeibeh instructed the ministry of defense to send an official delegation to Ankara to "ascertain the circumstances of the incident, follow up on the relevant procedures, and coordinate directly with the competent Turkish authorities to ensure the completion of the investigations."
Turkish Interior Minister Ali Yerlikaya earlier on Tuesday announced that authorities had located the wreckage of the Tripoli-bound aircraft south of Ankara.
"The wreckage of the aircraft that took off from Ankara Esenboga Airport en route to Tripoli has been found by our Gendarmerie forces 2 kilometers south of Kesikkavak village in the Haymana district," Yerlikaya said in a post on X.
Yerlikaya said contact with the Falcon 50 business jet, tail number 9H-DFJ, was lost around 40 minutes after takeoff.
"Communication was lost at 8:52 pm with a Falcon 50 business jet, which departed Ankara Esenboga Airport at 8:10 pm local time for Tripoli," he said, adding that the aircraft had requested an emergency landing near Haymana before contact was lost.
The crash prompted Turkish authorities to temporarily close Ankara’s airspace as search and rescue operations were launched.
Earlier on Tuesday, al-Haddad and a high-level Libyan military delegation had met with Turkish Defense Minister Yasar Guler during an official visit to Ankara.