The state media reported contradicting information regarding the crash site, but rescuers discovered the helicopter carrying Iran’s President Ebrahim Raisi and other senior officials crashed in northwest Iran with no indications of life.
Rescuers discovered the helicopter carrying Iranian President Ebrahim Raisi, the foreign minister, and other officials on Monday. The aircraft appeared to have crashed the previous day in Iran’s hilly northwest, but “no sign of life” was found, according to state television.
The Iranian Red Crescent Society’s leader, Pir Hossein Kolivand, told state media that rescuers saw the chopper as the sun rose on Monday at a distance of about two kilometers (1.25 miles). He gave no further details, and the officials had been absent for more than twelve hours by then.
The incident occurs at a time when Iran, led by Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei and Raisi, has enriched uranium closer than ever to weapons-grade levels and last month conducted an unprecedented drone and missile attack on Israel.
Raisi was traveling through the province of East Azerbaijan in Iran. About 600 kilometers (375 miles) northwest of Tehran, the capital of Iran, near the city of Jolfa, on the border with the country of Azerbaijan, is where State TV said that a “hard landing” had occurred.
Later, state TV moved it closer to the village of Uzi in the east, but the details remained unclear.
The governor of Iran’s province of East Azerbaijan, Iran’s foreign minister Hossein Amirabdollahian, as well as other officials and bodyguards, accompanied Raisi, according to the state-run IRNA news agency. While several local government representatives referred to the event as a “hard landing” or a “crash,” one official used the term “crash.”
Turkish authorities published what they said to be drone footage early on Monday morning, depicting what looked to be a wildfire in the woods that they “suspected to be the wreckage of a helicopter.”
According to the video, the fire was located on a steep mountainside around 20 kilometers (12 miles) south of the border between Iran and Azerbaijan.
Unfavorable circumstances
Early on Monday, the IRNA posted footage that appeared to be the accident scene, which was located across a steep valley in a range of green mountains, according to the agency.
Speaking in the regional Turkic tongue, the soldiers declared, “There it is, we found it.”
Soon after, the state television stated, “There is no sign of life from people on board,” in a scrolling sentence on the screen. The semiofficial Tasnim news agency did not provide further details, but it did show rescuers flying over the scene with a small drone while they talked among themselves and said the same thing. The video displayed the helicopter’s tail as well as the majority of the debris surrounding it.
The prayers were shown constantly on the main channel of state television.
A group of men watched a video of Raisi praying while kneeling on the side of the road in Tehran, some of them clearly crying as they held prayer beads.
Mehdi Seyedi, one of the men, remarked, “We’ll be heartbroken if anything happens to him.” “May the prayers be answered, and may he safely return to the nation’s arms.”
The location is known to be hilly, and IRNA referred to it as a “forest.”
Images of SUVs speeding through a wooded region were broadcast by State TV, which claimed that the bad weather, which included strong winds and rain, was impeding the vehicles. The mist and fog revealed rescuers on foot.
Additionally, Khamenei personally asked people to pray.
With a “amen” from the worshippers, Khamenei continued, “We hope that God the Almighty returns the dear president and his colleagues in full health to the arms of the nation.”
SOURCE: TRTWORLD
