The head of the Iranian President's Office, Gholam Hossein Esmaeili, revealed new details regarding the helicopter crash that involved President Ebrahim Raisi and his accompanying delegation on Sunday in East Azerbaijan. In a conversation with Iranian television, Esmaeili stated that after the inauguration ceremony of the Qalaqiz border dam shared with Azerbaijan, they headed towards the city of Tabriz in East Azerbaijan Province, northwestern Iran, in clear weather. However, midway through the journey, they encountered a cloud formation.
The pilot of the helicopter carrying the president instructed to increase altitude upon reaching the clouds, but after climbing, there was no sign of President Raisi's helicopter. Esmaeili mentioned that once radio communication was lost, they made phone calls to the president's bodyguard, Foreign Minister Hossein Amir-Abdollahian, the Imam of Friday prayers in Tabriz, and the governor of Tabriz, but received no response from them.
He continued by saying that the crew of their flight also stated that they attempted to contact the pilot, Captain Mostafaei, on his mobile phone, but instead, Mr. Ayatollah Al-Hashem answered, saying, "I am not well; we crashed in the valley." Esmaeili recounted that he called Mr. Al-Hashem again and asked where they were, to which he replied, "I don’t know... I am among the trees." When asked about the others, Al-Hashem said, "I don’t see anyone; I am alone and don’t know what happened; there is nobody around me."
Esmaeili noted that at that moment, it became clear that President Raisi's helicopter had indeed crashed, and they determined their mission was to quickly reach the crash site and commence rescue and relief operations. He concluded by stating that "later we learned that the other passengers in the helicopter were martyred instantly," clarifying that the condition of the bodies indicated that the helicopter crew died immediately after the incident.
Cities like Tabriz, Tehran, and Qom held popular and official ceremonies on Tuesday to mourn President Raisi, Foreign Minister Abdullahian, and their companions before the late president was laid to rest. The Iranian presidency announced on Monday the deaths of Raisi, Abdullahian, and other officials following the crash of their helicopter while returning from the "Khoda Afarin" area on the shared border with Azerbaijan towards the city of Tabriz.
