ANKARA: Libyan Prime Minister Abdul-Hamid Dbeibah has confirmed the death of Libyan army chief Muhammad Ali Ahmad Al-Haddad and four others in a plane crash in Turkiye on Tuesday evening.

The prime minister said in a statement on Facebook that the “tragic accident” took place as the Libyan delegation was “returning from an official trip to Ankara.” He called it a “great loss” to Libya.

Officials in Libya said contact with the plane was completely lost about half hour into the flight because of a technical malfunction.

Al-Hadad was the top military commander in western Libya. He played a crucial role in the UN-brokered ongoing efforts to unify Libya’s military, which has split much like Libya’s institutions.

Turkiye’s interior minister, Ali Yerlikaya, said wreckage has been found after the Falcon 50 type business jet carrying Al-Hadad and four others crashed near the capital Ankara on Tuesday.

“Contact was lost at 20:52 local time (1752 GMT) with a Falcon 50-type business jet, tail number 9H-DFJ, departing from Ankara’s Esenboga airport bound for Tripoli at 20:10 local time,” Yerlikaya said in a statement posted on X.

The plane issued an emergency landing signal near Haymana, a district 74 kilometers (45 miles) south of Ankara, before all communication ceased, he added.

Security camera footage aired on local television stations showed the night sky over Haymana suddenly lit up by what appeared to be an explosion.

Al-Haddad met with Turkish Defense Minister Yasar Guler and other officials during his visit.

Following the reports, the airport in Ankara was closed and several flights were diverted to other locations, private NTV news channel reported.

Turkiye has close ties with the UN-backed government in Tripoli, to which it provides economic and military support.