Iranian president Ebrahim Raisi dies in tragic helicopter crash

The Chief of Staff of the President of Iran has revealed more details about the helicopter crash that resulted in the deaths of President Ebrahim Raisi, Foreign Minister Hossein Amir-Abdollahian, and two local officials. Gholamhossein Esmaili described the sequence of events on that fateful day. He disclosed that the weather in the Varzaqan region of Iran, where the presidential helicopter crashed, was ideal initially and for most of the flight.

The Persian news agency Mehr reported the account provided by the Chief of Staff of the President of Iran, Gholamhossein Esmaili. The official described the tragic end of Ebrahim Raisi and the delegation's journey. He recounted that the presidential convoy, consisting of three helicopters, was flying from Tehran to Tabriz.

He reported that the weather was very nice around 6 AM Greenwich Time when the helicopters approached Khoda Afrin. The delegation met with the President of Azerbaijan for the opening of a dam.

- We had an hour-long meeting and prayed at noon. Around 9 AM Greenwich Time, in good weather, we boarded the helicopters and flew to Tabriz. The sky was clear and cloudless; we observed no particular weather phenomena. A cloud appeared after about half an hour on the route through a valley near the Mes Songun area. It might have been fog in the valley depression, but none was on our flight path. The clouds were somewhat higher than the helicopters - said Gholamhossein Esmaili.

He added that then the helicopter pilot carrying the president, who was the convoy commander, ordered the helicopters to gain altitude. Then, it turned out that the presidential helicopter had disappeared. There was no radio contact with it.

We were calling the passengers of that helicopter. No one answered. Only later did we contact the captain, who said the helicopter had an accident. There was no explosion, fire, or smoke. The weather in the area had simply changed completely, said President Raisi's Chief of Staff.

"Three factors could have led to the crash - human error, bad weather conditions, or a malfunction" - commented on platform X by Łukasz Przybyszewski, President of the Abhaseed Foundation Fund. The expert explains that the convoy consisted of three helicopters. The president was in the middle.

He added that attempts to establish contact began when the second helicopter was found missing. Finally, they connected with the pilot's mobile phone, but Ayatollah Hashemi was on the other end. He kept repeating that things were terrible. Then contact was lost. The bodies were found only after several hours.

"Until the black box is read, we cannot be sure if there was a malfunction. It is puzzling that the first helicopter emerged from the clouds and the second did not. Visibility was poor. Perhaps the pilot misjudged his position, and we know the helicopters were not equipped for challenging conditions," comments Przybyszewski.