Interesting and unusual Turkish flight to Libya

First of all, let us start with an observation. According to a NOTAM published by the Greek civil aviation authority, it is forbidden to fly over the airspace of all aircraft that are bound for Libya. The exceptions are few and detailed in the NOTAM.

Similarly, although it is not stated in the NOTAM, overflight of Greek territory by aircraft bound for Libya is not permitted.

Today the BOMBARDIER CL-600 (reg. KLH71) used by Turkey as a VIP aircraft took off from Ankara at around 10:00 CET and landed two hours later in Benghazi. We do not know who it was carrying.

This track is therefore interesting for two reasons: the first is that the aircraft had obtained specific permission to cross Greek airspace and arrive in Libya (something that had already happened in the past to the same aircraft flying to Tripoli), the second is precisely the destination of the flight, Benghazi. Ankara’s relations with the Benghazi government have long been stormy and are still far from normal.

In short, a flight that is anything but usual and very interesting

(thanks to the @aegeanhawk twitter account for the information provided)