A private jet carrying Libya’s top military leadership crashed shortly after takeoff from Ankara, killing all eight people on board, including Libya’s military chief Muhammad Ali Ahmad al-Haddad. The aircraft, a Falcon 50-type business jet, went down on Tuesday night following a reported technical malfunction, Libyan and Turkish officials confirmed.

The Libyan delegation was in Turkey’s capital for high-level defence talks aimed at strengthening military cooperation between the two countries. Libya’s Prime Minister Abdul-Hamid Dbeibah confirmed the deaths, calling the crash a “tragic accident” and describing the loss of senior military leaders as a major blow to the country. Al-Haddad was a key figure in western Libya and played an important role in UN-backed efforts to unify Libya’s fractured military.

Also killed in the crash were four senior officers: Gen Al-Fitouri Ghraibil, head of Libya’s ground forces; Brig Gen Mahmoud Al-Qatawi, chief of the military manufacturing authority; Mohammed Al-Asawi Diab, advisor to the chief of staff; and Mohammed Omar Ahmed Mahjoub, a military photographer. The identities of the three crew members have not yet been disclosed.

Turkish officials said air traffic controllers lost contact with the jet around 40 minutes after it departed Ankara’s Esenboga Airport. The plane had reported an electrical fault and requested an emergency landing before disappearing from radar while descending near Haymana district, about 70 km south of Ankara. Wreckage was later found near the village of Kesikkavak. Turkey has launched a formal investigation, assigning four prosecutors, while Libya will send a team to assist in the probe. The crash occurred amid renewed diplomatic engagement between Ankara and rival Libyan administrations, a day after Turkey extended the mandate of its troops stationed in Libya.