The Chief of Staff of the Libyan Army was killed on Tuesday evening when his private aircraft crashed in Turkey while returning to Tripoli.

Libyan Prime Minister Abdul Hamid Dbeibeh announced that Chief of Staff Mohammed Al-Haddad died in the crash after concluding an official visit to Ankara, where he had held meetings with senior Turkish officials.

According to Dbeibeh, four additional members of the delegation were also killed in the incident: the head of the Libyan Army’s production authority, the chief of staff of the ground forces, an adviser to the Chief of Staff, and a photographer from the Chief of Staff’s office.

The prime minister described the incident as a “tragic accident” and said it represents “a great loss to the nation, the military establishment, and the entire Libyan people”.

Earlier in the evening, Turkish Interior Minister Ali Yerlikaya reported that contact had been lost with the aircraft carrying the Libyan Chief of Staff.

The plane departed Ankara’s Esenboğa Airport at approximately eight thirty in the evening local time.

About forty minutes after takeoff, communication with the aircraft was lost, after which the airport was temporarily closed.

Yerlikaya stated that the aircraft was en route from Ankara to Tripoli and had requested an emergency landing in the Ankara region before contact was lost.

He later confirmed that the wreckage was found roughly fifty kilometers southeast of the Turkish capital, in the village of Kesikbak in the İmrahor district.

According to Turkish reports, the aircraft declared a technical malfunction in its electrical systems shortly after takeoff.

After requesting an emergency landing, it began returning toward Ankara while dumping fuel in preparation for landing.

Communication was then lost.

Video footage circulated online shows the moment of the crash, including a large explosion in the area where contact with the aircraft was severed.

Images of the wreckage have also been released by Turkish media.