Black box recovered from crashed Libyan plane

HAYMANA: Turkish authorities found the cockpit voice recorder and black box from a private jet that crashed on Wednesday, 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, 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.
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 that covers approximately three square kilometres, adding that a 22-member Libyan delegation, including five relatives of the deceased, had arrived in Ankara. 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, adding that the analysis process may take several months. Haddad had been the army's chief of general staff since August 2020 and was appointed by then-prime minister Fayez al Sarraj.
A senior Turkish official said the plane requested an emergency landing because of an electrical failure 16 minutes after it took off. The jet carried eight passengers including Haddad, four members of his entourage and three crew members 'reported an emergency to the air traffic control centre due to an electrical failure, asking for an emergency landing,' Burhanettin Duran, head of the presidency's communications directorate, said on X. Turkish Justice Minister Yilmaz Tunc said the Ankara chief prosecutor's office has launched an investigation into the incident.
Several Turkish media outlets broadcast images showing the sky lit up by an explosion not far from the location where the aircraft sent a signal.
Burhan Cicek, a local in Haymana, recalled the moment when the plane crashed. Libya's ambassador to Ankara was also at the site. Walid Ellafi, Libyan minister of state for communication and political affairs, said that the Turkish government informed his government of the incident. 'We received a call from the Turkish authorities immediately after the incident, reporting that contact with the aircraft had been lost,' the minister said. 'All contact with the aircraft was lost about half an hour after takeoff from Ankara airport due to a technical problem,' he said. 'We are awaiting the conclusions of the Turkish investigation, and it appears that the plane crashed.' — AFP