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‘No sign of life’ from crashed helicopter that was carrying Iranian president
Dubai: Rescuers have found a helicopter that was carrying Iranian President Ebrahim Raisi, the country’s foreign minister and other officials that had apparently crashed and told state TV there was no sign of life from the scene.
As the sun rose in Iran on Monday (noon AEST), rescuers saw the helicopter from about two kilometres away and had not yet reached the crash site, the Iranian Red Crescent Society president Pir Hossein Kolivand told state media. He did not elaborate and the officials had been missing at that point by over 12 hours.
An Iranian government handout of Iranian President Ebrahim Raisi (left) with Azerbaijani President Ilham Aliyev inaugurating the Qiz Qalasi Dam on their joint border just hours before the Iranian president’s helicopter crashed.Credit: Office of the President of the Islamic Republic of Iran via Getty Images
Raisi was travelling in Iran’s East Azerbaijan province. State TV said what it called a “hard landing” happened near Jolfa, a city on the border with the nation of Azerbaijan, about 600 kilometres north-west of the Iranian capital, Tehran. Later, state TV put it further east near the village of Uzi, but details remained contradictory.
The incident comes after Iran under Raisi and Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei launched an unprecedented drone and missile attack on Israel on April 13 in response to an earlier Israeli attack on an Iranian consulate in the Syrian city of Damascus.
There was immediate speculation from international commentators and online conspiracy theorists that the helicopter incident would be blamed on Israel, further inflaming relations in the Middle East.
However, Iranian state TV blamed the crash on adverse weather conditions.
Iran has also faced years of mass protests against its Shiite theocracy over an ailing economy and women’s rights – making the moment that much more sensitive for Tehran and the future of the country as the Israel-Hamas war inflames the wider Middle East.
Traveling with Raisi were Iran’s Foreign Minister Hossein Amirabdollahian, the governor of Iran’s East Azerbaijan province and other officials and bodyguards, the state-run IRNA news agency reported. One local government official used the word “crash” but others referred to either a “hard landing” or an “incident”.
Neither IRNA nor state TV offered any information on Raisi’s condition in the hours afterward.
Early on Monday, Turkish authorities released what they described as drone footage showing a fire in the wilderness that they “suspected to be wreckage of helicopter”. The co-ordinates listed in the footage put the fire some 20 kilometres south of the Azerbaijan-Iranian border on the side of a steep mountain.
Rescue teams and people are seen near the site of the incident of the helicopter carrying Iranian President Ebrahim Raisi in Varzaghan in north-western Iran.Credit: AP
Hardliners urged the public to pray for him. State TV aired images of hundreds of the faithful praying at Imam Reza Shrine in the city of Mashhad, one of Shiite Islam’s holiest sites, as well as in Qom and other locations across the country. State television’s main channel aired the prayers non-stop.
In Tehran, a group of men kneeling on the side of the street clasped strands of prayer beads and watched a video of Raisi praying, some of them visibly weeping.
Iranian President Ebrahim Raisi.Credit: Office of the President of the Islamic Republic of Iran via Getty Images
“If anything happens to him we’ll be heartbroken,” said one of the men, Mehdi Seyedi. “May the prayers work and may he return to the arms of the nation safe and sound.”
IRNA called the helicopter’s location a “forest”, while the region is also known to be mountainous. State TV aired images of SUVs racing through a wooded area and said they were being hampered by poor weather conditions, including heavy rain and wind. Rescuers could be seen walking in the fog and mist.
A rescue helicopter tried to reach the area where authorities believe Raisi’s helicopter was, but it couldn’t land due to heavy mist, emergency services spokesman Babak Yektaparast told IRNA.
Long after the sun set, Iranian government spokesman Ali Bahadori Jahromi acknowledged that “we are experiencing difficult and complicated conditions” in the search.
“It is the right of the people and the media to be aware of the latest news about the president’s helicopter accident, but considering the co-ordinates of the incident site and the weather conditions, there is ‘no’ new news whatsoever until now,” he wrote on the social platform X. “In these moments, patience, prayer and trust in relief groups are the way forward.”
Khamenei himself also urged the public to pray.
“We hope that God the Almighty returns the dear president and his colleagues in full health to the arms of the nation,” Khamenei said, drawing an “amen” from the worshippers he was addressing.
However, the supreme leader also stressed the business of Iran’s government would continue no matter what.
Under the Iranian constitution, Iran’s vice first president takes over if the president dies with Khamenei’s assent, and a new presidential election would be called within 50 days. First Vice President Mohammad Mokhber already had begun receiving calls from officials and foreign governments in Raisi’s absence, state media reported.
What happens if an Iranian president dies in office?
According to article 131 of the Islamic Republic’s constitution, if a president dies in office, the first vice president takes over after confirmation from the supreme leader, who has the final say in all matters of state.
A council consisting of the first vice president, the speaker of parliament and the head of the judiciary must arrange an election for a new president within 50 days.
Raisi was elected president in 2021 and, under the current timetable, presidential elections are due to take place in 2025.
Raisi, 63, a hardliner who formerly led the country’s judiciary, is viewed as a protégé of Khamenei and some analysts have suggested he could replace the 85-year-old leader after Khamenei’s death or resignation.
Raisi had been on the border with Azerbaijan on Sunday to inaugurate a dam with Azerbaijan’s President Ilham Aliyev.
The dam is the third that the two nations have built on the Aras River. The visit came despite chilly relations between the two nations, including over a gun attack on Azerbaijan’s Embassy in Tehran in 2023, and Azerbaijan’s diplomatic relations with Israel, which Iran’s Shiite theocracy views as its main enemy in the region.
AP
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