Libyan prosecutors allege Citation crew was intoxicated before Misrata crash

A Cessna Citation Latitude registered TC-AKF left the runway while landing at Misrata International Airport in Libya and was destroyed by fire, according to Libyan prosecutors. The jet had flown in from Istanbul with two pilots and a flight attendant, who were there to pick up passengers. All three crew members survived.

Prosecutors said in a September 16 statement issued through the state news agency LANA that the crew was questioned a day after the accident, and that the two pilots were presented with evidence they had flown the aircraft while intoxicated. The announcement gave no detail on what that evidence was. Prosecutors also accused the pilots of ignoring aviation safety rules and of putting the crew, the aircraft and people at the airport at risk, and ordered both men held in pretrial detention. The accident occurred on September 14, 2026.

The aircraft's Turkish operator, BKNJET, said it had not received any verified finding or document pointing to alcohol, and disputed accounts that the pilots had been arrested. The two men were being questioned, the company said.

Investigators looked over the wreckage, went through air traffic control and weather records, and took statements from airport technical staff. The cockpit voice recorder and the flight data recorder have been retrieved, according to the Libyan Civil Aviation Authority, which said they will go to a specialist facility for decoding.

The inquiry team also spoke with the crew and controllers, listened to tower audio and tracked the aircraft's course from its touchdown on Runway 15 to the point where it came to rest. The wreckage has been moved into a hangar for examination.