Investigations into the crash of the aircraft carrying Lieutenant General Mohammed Al-Haddad, the Libyan Chief of the General Staff, have taken a significant technical turn. The Ministry of Interior of the Government of National Unity announced that the flight data recorder and the cockpit voice recorder—the “black box”—will be transported to Braunschweig, Germany. The German Federal Bureau of Aircraft Accident Investigation (BFU) will conduct a rigorous technical evaluation to ensure an impartial analysis of the disaster, which occurred 80km south of Ankara and claimed the lives of all eight people on board.
On the ground, a delegation from the Maltese company that operated the aircraft—under charter to the Libyan government—has begun inspecting the wreckage. This work is supported by the Turkish Prosecutor General’s Office, which has provided all relevant technical documents and CCTV footage to the investigation. To ensure the precise identification of the victims, criminal investigators in Tripoli have dispatched DNA samples from the victims’ relatives to Turkey for matching with remains currently held at the Ankara Forensic Medicine Institute.
Medical and legal procedures are expected to be finalised today, followed by a formal military farewell ceremony at the Mürted Air Base attended by senior Turkish military commanders. The remains will then be repatriated to Tripoli via military aircraft for an official handover to the Libyan authorities. The final outcome of the investigation now hinges on the technical reports from Germany, which are expected to shed light on the official causes of the crash following the officials’ state visit to Turkey.
