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Turkish authorities recovered the voice recorder and black box from the Falcon 50 aircraft that crashed near Ankara, killing Libya's Army Chief of Staff Lt. Gen. Mohammed al-Haddad and four aides, Interior Minister Ali Yerlikaya announced Wednesday.
The aircraft requested an emergency landing due to an electrical failure minutes after taking off from Ankara's Esenboga Airport but then contact was lost.
The plane was returning to Tripoli carrying eight passengers, including three crew members, after Haddad and his delegation held talks in Ankara with Turkish military officials.
"The examination and evaluation processes of these devices have been initiated by the relevant authorities," Yerlikaya said, speaking to reporters at the crash site.
The plane's wreckage was located by Turkish security personnel in the Haymana district near Ankara. The voice recorder was recovered at 2:45 a.m. and the black box at 3:20 a.m. from the crash site.
According to Interior Minister Yerlikaya, the wreckage covered approximately 3 square kilometers. The crash site is located approximately 2 kilometers south of the Kesikkavak neighborhood in the Haymana district.
Yerlikaya stated that search and rescue operations involved 408 personnel from multiple agencies, including AFAD, gendarmerie, police, health services, UMKE, Ground Forces Command, Air Forces Command, Transportation and Infrastructure Ministry's Transportation Safety Investigation Center Directorate, fire department, and State Airports Administration.
The operations included 103 ground vehicles and seven aircraft. Thermal and lighting drones, 8x8 and 4x4 search and rescue vehicles, and K-9 units conducted coordinated operations through the AFAD mobile coordination center.
Turkish interior minister also stated that the bodies remained at the wreckage area and that a 22-member Libyan delegation consisting of 14 family members of the deceased and eight officials from Libya's Interior Ministry had arrived in Ankara to participate in the investigation.
"In this unfortunate accident, I extend my condolences to those who lost their lives, to their families, to the Libyan people, to the Libyan government, to the Libyan General Command, and to our friend and brother country, Libya. I also extend my condolences to the families of the crew members who lost their lives in the accident," Yerlikaya said.
The Ankara Chief Prosecutor's Office launched an investigation following the crash. Four prosecutors were assigned under the coordination of one chief prosecutor.
"Clarifying and uncovering this matter is our most important duty. As a state, we are committed to doing this. In the shortest possible time, the cause of this will emerge and we will share it with you, with our noble nation, and with the entire world," he stated.
Yerlikaya said that as new information becomes available, it will be shared with the public, and the Libyan delegation that arrived in Ankara will participate in the investigation process.
Türkiye has close ties with the U.N.-backed government in Tripoli, to which it provides economic and military support with frequent visits between both sides.
However, Ankara has recently also reached out to the rival administration in the east. The head of Ankara's intelligence agency, Ibrahim Kalin, met with Haftar in Benghazi in August.
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