UPDATE: On Monday, rescue teams located the helicopter that was carrying Iranian President Ebrahim Raisi, the country’s foreign minister, and other government officials that had crashed in a mountainous region in northwest Iran on Sunday. State media told the Associated Press that “no sign of life” was detected.
Shortly thereafter, Iranian officials confirmed the death of Raisi along with other passengers in the helicopter including Iranian Foreign Minister Hossein Amir-Abdollahian, the Islamic Republic's representative to the East Azerbaijan province Seyyed Mohammad Ali Ale-Hashem, and the province's Governor Malek Rahmati. The helicopter's pilot and co-pilot were also killed.
ORIGINAL STORY: As the sun rose on Monday, rescuers successfully located the helicopter that crashed while carrying Iranian President Ebrahim Raisi, along with the country’s foreign minister and other officials, which went down crashed in the mountainous East Azerbaijan region a day earlier, the AP reports.
According to Pir Hossein Kolivand, the head of the Iranian Red Crescent Society, rescuers spotted the helicopter from a distance of approximately 2 kilometers (1.25 miles) as the sun illuminated the landscape on Monday. However, further details were not provided. The president and his delegation had already been missing for over 12 hours.
Earlier in the day, the search for the helicopter was postposed due to weather and Iran suspended the search from the air. It continued on foot with rescuers unable to use cars due to the muddy, unpaved roads.
“Unfortunately, continuing aerial operations was no longer possible due to intense fog across the region,” Babak Yektaparast, spokesperson for the emergency services organization, said according to Al Jazeera. He also stated that additional air ambulances had been dispatchedto be on hand.
The helicopter, transporting President Raisi and other high-ranking officials, reportedly made a crash landing while across the northeast region of Iran. Raisi had been attending the inauguration of a dam alongside Azerbaijani President Ilham Aliyev before the incident occurred.
Confirmed passengers aboard the ill-fated helicopter include Iran's Foreign Minister Hossein Amir-Abdollahian, Iran’s East Azerbaijan Province Governor Malek Rahmati, and Ayatollah Mohammad Ali Ale-Hashem.
While two other helicopters accompanying the convoy safely returned to Tabriz, the fate of those on board the crashed aircraft remains uncertain amidst challenging weather conditions.
