Plane carrying Libyan army chief of staff loses contact near Turkish capital

ANKARA -- A business jet carrying Libya's army chief of staff, Mohammed al-Haddad, lost radio contact near Ankara on Tuesday evening after departing Ankara's Esenboga Airport for Tripoli, Türkiye's Interior Minister Ali Yerlikaya said.

"At 20:10 this evening, a Falcon 50 type business jet with tail number 9H-DFJ took off from Ankara Esenboga Airport bound for Tripoli, and as of 20:52, contact with the aircraft was lost," the minister said in a post on social media platform X.

The statement said an emergency landing notification was received from the aircraft near the Haymana district of Ankara province, but subsequent attempts to re-establish communication were unsuccessful.

According to the interior minister, there were five passengers on board the jet.

Türkiye's Anadolu Agency reported that al-Haddad met on Tuesday with Turkish Defense Minister Yasar Guler and Turkish Chief of the General Staff Selcuk Bayraktaroglu in Ankara.

His visit came one day after the Turkish parliament approved a 24-month extension of the Turkish military mission in Libya, beginning on Jan 2, 2026.?