On 4 February, in an interview with Anadolu Agency, Turkish Transport Minister Abdulkadir Ural Oğul outlined some new findings from the investigation into the plane that crashed on 23 December near Ankara while transporting a Libyan Army Chief of Staff Lieutenant General (promoted after his death to the rank of Field Marshal) Muhammed al-Haddad and his delegation on the way back to Libya from an official visit.
He explained that the cockpit voice recorder, though heavily damaged, was successfully decoded by UK’s Air Accidents Investigation Branch (AAIB) in Farnborough and provided a clear picture of what happened during the flight. According to the recovered audio, the aircraft took off at exactly 20:17 local time from Esenboğa Airport. Within the first two minutes, the pilots reported that the second generator had failed, followed 13-14 seconds later by the third. As the flight continued, they discussed all three generators going offline before briefly returning, indicating serious electrical instability.
Throughout this period, the crew remained in communication with the control tower, reporting their electrical problems and eventually requesting to return to the airport. They issued a ‘PAN PAN’ call, signaling an urgent situation just below the level of a full ‘MAYDAY,’ which prompted the tower to begin guiding them manually because the aircraft’s systems were failing. Communication continued until roughly minute 27 of the flight, after which contact became unreliable as the plane lost altitude and began to disappear from radar. In the final stage of the flight, the pilot activated a button designed to send a MAYDAY signal. The plane ultimately crashed near Haymana around minute 37, while attempting to approach Esenboğa Airport.
Uraloğlu noted that the judicial investigation is being overseen by the Ankara Chief Public Prosecutor’s Office and that all technical work is being carried out under their direction. He added that the flight data recorder is extremely old and severely damaged, and so far no usable information has been recovered from it, though efforts continue. The voice recorder, however, already provides substantial insight into the sequence of events. He also remarked that if the pilots had requested to return immediately after the first generator failures, the situation might have unfolded differently, though final conclusions will depend on expert analyses and legal findings.