Turkish Airlines provided a special flight to accommodate 168 passengers, consisting of mainly Turks, who had escaped the conflict and uncertainty in Libya and had made their way to Tunisia, to fly them back to Turkey.
The evacuation operation organized by Turkey's embassy in Tunisia, used THY's private plane, TK 3998, to fly 159 adults and nine children from Tunisia to Atatürk Airport. One of the passengers and a construction worker Mustafa Tetik states, 'I work in the center of Trablus. The events did not reflect on us directly, however in Libya it is now a war environment. In the beginning we waited for the situation to be straightened out, however the tension just increased. We began to think we might be affected and decided to return. Thanks to our embassy, we were able to return to our country."Construction worker Şeref Yaşar, who also resided in Trablus, stated that they faced no difficulties. "We weren't going to return to Turkey; however our company decided that we should."