Investigation after jet plane crash carrying Libyan officer | Traffic news in Turkiye

TURKIYE, ISTANBUL – Turkish and Libyan authorities are investigating the crash of a private jet near Ankara that killed Libyan military commander Mohammed Ali Ahmed al-Haddad and seven others.

The investigation is being coordinated by Ankara’s Chief Prosecutor’s Office and focuses on technical evidence, flight records, crew activities and aircraft maintenance, officials said. France’s civil aviation investigation agency, BEA, has announced that it will take part in the investigation.

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General Al-Haddad was received in Ankara on Tuesday for talks with Turkey’s Turkish counterpart Selcuk Bayraktaroglu and Defense Minister Yasar Güler.

Officials said the French-made Dassault Falcon 50 took off from Ankara Esenboga Airport at 2:17 p.m. on Tuesday and returned to Libya, but 16 minutes later it reported an electrical failure and requested an emergency return.

Immediately after, at 2:41 p.m. (17:41 Japan time), the aircraft lost contact with the radar while descending toward the runway.

Officials said there was just two minutes between the emergency alarm and the crash.

Many elements of the probe

Forensic examination of the bodies of General al-Haddad and his military comrades was completed early Saturday morning, and a ceremony was held in their honor at an air base outside Ankara before they were returned to Libya.

The site of Tuesday’s crash, near the village of Kesikkavak in Haymana district, about 70 kilometers south of Ankara, has been cordoned off by Turkish security forces. All wreckage, including the cockpit voice recorder and flight data recorder, or “black box,” was secured and transported for analysis, authorities said.

Experts are examining air traffic control records, radar data and airport surveillance camera footage as part of a prosecutor-led investigation.

Authorities are also requesting records of communications between the pilots and the control tower, and are examining records of the crew’s rest periods, medical histories, and meals and medications taken before the flight.

Maintenance records and documentation related to the aircraft’s most recent inspection are also being scrutinized to identify potential technical deficiencies.

Fuel samples will be taken from both the wreckage and the airport tank to rule out contamination or fuel misuse, and local weather data at the time of the crash is also being sought.

Investigators said the investigation could be extended to manufacturers and maintenance contractors if evidence points to structural or design flaws.

International rules and reporting schedules

Gurcel Tokmakoglu, former head of Turkey’s Air Force Intelligence Agency, said the crash should be seen as an international incident, given the number of parties involved.

“The Libyan government chartered the plane from a foreign country. The plane was manufactured in another country. The pilot was from another country. The passengers were Libyans and the crash occurred in Turkiye,” he said.

“This is clearly a multinational incident when you also take into account the insurance companies and the International Aviation Organization.”

Earlier, Turkey’s Transport Minister Abdulkadir Uraloglu announced that the black box could be sent to other countries for further analysis, raising questions about why it could not be done in Turkiye or Libya.

Tokmakoglu said Turkiye could examine the black box domestically or send it abroad for further analysis.

“Especially in cases involving so many international stakeholders, transferring the recorder increases transparency and helps us understand more clearly what happened,” he said.

Tokmakoglu noted that preliminary findings indicate that the aircraft transmitted the 7700 emergency code “Squawk,” which indicates an emergency situation requiring immediate attention, and that the crew reported an electrical failure.

However, he added that it was too early to assume that an electrical failure was the cause of the plane’s crash.

“In the aviation industry, electrical system failures can cause other problems,” he said, comparing such a situation to “a person being admitted to intensive care with heart failure, but then dying from a lung infection.”

Aviation industry analyst Guntai Simsek told Al Jazeera, citing his sources, that there is currently no indication that the crash was caused by an explosion or other external factors, adding that a technical investigation is still ongoing.

Aviation industry analyst Ghantai Simsek pointed to ICAO rules governing aircraft accident investigations, saying it was within general best practice to start an investigation immediately after a crash, and required a preliminary report within 30 days and a final report within 12 months.