ISTANBUL, December 24. /TASS/. Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan has offered condolences to Libya over the plane crash near Ankara that killed Libyan Army Chief of Staff Muhammad al-Haddad, the presidential press service said in a statement following Erdogan’s call with Abdul Hamid Dbeibeh, prime minister of Libya’s Tripoli-based Government of National Unity (GNU).

"President Erdogan expressed condolences over the death of a Libyan military delegation in a plane crash in Ankara's Haymana District," the statement reads.

Turkish Interior Minister Ali Yerlikaya said earlier that a Falcon 50 aircraft carrying Libya’s military delegation had left Ankara Esenboga Airport for Tripoli at 8:17 p.m. local time (5:17 p.m. GMT) on Tuesday. A quarter of an hour later, the crew reported an emergency on board and announced plans to return to the airport of departure. Contact with the flight was lost at 8:52 p.m. Debris from the crashed plane was discovered in the Haymana District at 10:00 p.m. There were eight people on board, including five Libyan military officers and three crew members.

Libya’s Government of National Unity declared three days of mourning over the death of Muhammad al-Haddad.