Libya to Receive Remains of Army Chief

Libya will receive the remains of its army chief of staff later on Saturday after he was killed in a plane crash near Ankara, Turkey’s defence ministry has said.

General Mohamed Al-Haddad, four of his advisers and three crew members died when their Falcon 50 jet crashed less than 40 minutes after take-off on Tuesday.

Turkey’s Defence Minister Yasar Guler has presided over a farewell ceremony at the Murted air base near Ankara ahead of the repatriation, the ministry said in a statement posted on X.

Libya to Receive Remains of Army Chief. Credit: Turkish Defence ministry.

The ceremony was also attended by Chief of General Staff General Selçuk Bayraktaroğlu, Naval Forces Commander Admiral Ercüment Tatlıoğlu, Land Forces Commander Metin Tokel, and Deputy Ministers Alpaslan Kavaklıoğlu and Salih Ayhan.

Gendarmerie General Commander General Ali Çardakçı also attended the farewell ceremony.

The aircraft’s black box was recovered from farmland near the crash site. Turkish authorities said the plane had suffered an electrical failure, adding that the investigation into the cause would be conducted by a “neutral country”, possibly Germany.

A French diplomatic source said two French nationals were among the crew. The jet was chartered from Harmony Jets, a Malta-based company that maintains its fleet in Lyon, France.