Many presidents and leaders of countries have experienced aerial incidents that sometimes resulted in their deaths, with the latest being the "emergency landing" of Iranian President Ebrahim Raisi's helicopter. The helicopter carrying the Iranian president and his accompanying delegation faced a "difficult landing" in East Azerbaijan Province, northwest Iran, and their fate remains unknown as of this report.
Here are notable presidents, leaders, and politicians who faced aerial incidents:
**Palestinian Leader Yasser Arafat**
Yasser Arafat's plane experienced an "emergency landing" in the Libyan desert in 1992. The aircraft, belonging to "Air Bissau," was forced to land in the Libyan desert on April 7, 1992. Arafat survived, but three of his companions did not. Aerial reconnaissance teams from Libyan, Egyptian, and French planes (from Chad) discovered the crash site, and Palestinian rescue teams quickly arrived from the Al-Sarah camp, leading to the rescue of the survivors.
**Pakistani President Muhammad Zia-ul-Haq**
Zia-ul-Haq was killed when his plane exploded in what is believed to have been an orchestrated incident on August 17, 1988, near Bahawalpur, while he was accompanied by top Pakistani military officials. Many believe explosives were hidden in a "mango box" on board, which caused the crash and his death along with those onboard. An Israeli and Indian intelligence agent, Ikram Awan, admitted to supplying the nerve gas used in Zia's assassination.
**Lebanese Prime Minister Rashid Karami**
Karami was killed in an explosion of a military helicopter. Samir Geagea, the leader of the Lebanese Forces, was convicted of orchestrating the assassination and received a death sentence, later commuted to life imprisonment before his release in 2005.
**Ecuadorian President Jaime Roldós Aguilera**
The Ecuadorian president died in a plane crash on May 24, 1981, under circumstances that remain unclear, with rumors of an assassination attempt on Roldós Aguilera.
**Polish President Lech Kaczyński**
The Polish presidential plane crashed near Smolensk, Russia, on April 10, 2010. Onboard were President Lech Kaczyński, his wife Maria Kaczyńska, and several other high-ranking Polish politicians.
**Macedonian President Boris Trajkovski**
President Trajkovski was killed in a plane crash on February 26, 2004, when the presidential plane went down 10 kilometers from the city of Mostar in Bosnia. Six members of his delegation and two crew members also died. An investigation confirmed that crew errors caused the crash.
**Mozambican President Samora Machel**
A "Tu-134" plane carrying Mozambican President Samora Machel returning to Maputo from an international conference crashed on October 19, 1986, over the borders of South Africa, Mozambique, and Zimbabwe. Several Mozambican government ministers died alongside the president, and the circumstances of the disaster remain insufficiently clarified.
**Iraqi President Abdul Salam Arif**
Iraqi President Abdul Salam Arif died at the age of 45 when his helicopter crashed under mysterious circumstances while transporting him and several ministers between Qurna and Basra on the evening of April 13, 1966. The helicopter encountered a sudden sandstorm, which allegedly caused the pilot to lose control, resulting in the aircraft turning twice before crashing and exploding, killing all onboard.
