The Libyan Watiya airbase announced that the fighter plane forced to land in southern Tunisia on Monday due to a technical fault belongs to the Libyan National Army (LNA).
The L-39 type plane took off from the Brak al-Shati base, just north of Sebha, currently controlled by the LNA, and it was in its way to Watiya airbase in northwestern Libya, the statement read.
The LNA said the fighter jet suffered a technical malfunction in the air navigation systems and ran out of fuel, which caused its pilot Colonel Faraj al-Sagheer to land in Tunisia.
The pilot is reported to be in good health and his craft, judging from widely circulating media photographs, looks undamaged.
Tunisian reports say the pilot landed the plane on an agricultural road in the area of Medenine, remaining by his plane and handed himself in voluntarily to Tunisian authorities. The plane was condoned off by Tunisian authorities.
Libya has been splintered by violent turmoil since the 2011 fall of Muammar Qaddafi. The LNA under Khalifa Haftar is trying now to take Tripoli from forces allied to the U.N.-backed Government of National Accord (GNA), but the LNA offensive has bogged down on the capital’s outskirts.
