Generator failures led to electrical loss before Libya military plane crashed near Ankara: Turkish minister

By Mertkan Oruc

Turkish authorities shared new details from the investigation into a plane crash near Ankara involving a Libyan military delegation, including that the crew reported electrical failures and attempted to return to the airport before losing contact.

A private jet carrying a Libyan military delegation crashed Dec. 23 near Ankara, killing all eight on board, including Libya’s chief of general staff, several senior Libyan military officials and three crew members.

Turkish Transport and Infrastructure Minister Abdulkadir Uraloglu told Anadolu that the aircraft remained in continuous communication with air traffic control before and after making an emergency call, informing controllers of an electrical malfunction.

- Pilots in contact with air traffic controllers

Uraloglu said the pilots requested to return to the airport and issued a “PAN-PAN, PAN-PAN, PAN-PAN” call, one level below the highest aviation distress signal. After the call, the control tower began working to guide the aircraft, but manual handling efforts started as onboard systems progressively failed.

All takeoffs and landings at the Esenboga Airport were halted once the aircraft began its return, said the minister. Although the pilots did not issue a verbal “MAYDAY” call, they activated an emergency transponder signal, which was detected by controllers.

“The controllers detected the emergency signal, but the aircraft crashed in the Haymana area before it could descend to a sufficient altitude and approach the airport,” said Uraloglu.

He also said the plane’s two flight recorders, the cockpit voice recorder and the flight data recorder, were heavily damaged.

- Turkish investigators oversaw process from crash site to analysis in UK

He noted that only four countries -- Russia, UK, France and the US -- have the technical capability to analyze such severely damaged devices. Following consultations with Libyan authorities, it was decided that the recorders would be examined in the UK, given that France is the aircraft’s manufacturing country.

He said Turkish accident investigation teams have monitored the whole process from the crash site to the examination procedures abroad.

- All 3 generators failed shortly after takeoff

Data from the cockpit voice recorder show the aircraft took off at 8.17 pm local time on Dec. 23. The pilots of the three-engine plane reported that the second generator failed in the second minute of flight, followed about 13 to 14 seconds later by a failure of the third generator.

“There was no information at that point about the first generator," said Uraloglu. "As the cockpit conversations continued, the crew said all generators had gone offline before the systems briefly came back.”

The crew then requested to return to the airport. From takeoff to the crash, the flight lasted 37 minutes, with continuous contact maintained for about 27 to 28 minutes as controllers vectored the aircraft back.

After the 27th minute, communication became unreliable. The aircraft, which had begun losing altitude, appeared intermittently on radar before disappearing entirely shortly before the crash.

- Investigation ongoing

Uraloglu said analysis of the cockpit voice recorder has been completed and all accessible information retrieved. But the flight data recorder, described as very old and severely damaged, has yielded no usable data. Efforts to extract additional information are ongoing, and any new findings will be submitted to judicial authorities.

He said while preliminary interpretations can be made, including the possibility that an earlier return might have prevented the accident, final conclusions will depend on judicial proceedings and expert reports.

*Writing by Seyit Kurt in Istanbul