Iranian President Raisi confirmed dead in helicopter crash

Iranian President Ebrahim Raisi is feared dead after rescuers found a helicopter carrying him and other officials that had apparently crashed in the mountainous northwest reaches of Iran the day before, Daily Mail reported.

As the sun rose Monday, rescuers saw the helicopter from a distance of some 1.25 miles, the head of the Iranian Red Crescent Society, 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 official said on Monday after search teams located the wreckage that ‘no sign of life’ was detected and things did not look good.

‘President Raisi’s helicopter was completely burned in the crash ... unfortunately, all passengers are feared dead,’ the official added.

Rescue teams fought blizzards and difficult terrain through the night to reach the wreckage in East Azerbaijan province in the early hours of Monday.

‘Red Crescent search and rescue teams have reached the crash site of the helicopter carrying the president,’ the Iranian Red Crescent said in a statement, which added the crash was found in the village of Tavil. 

Early Monday morning, Turkish authorities released what they described as drone footage showing what appeared to be a fire in the wilderness that they ‘suspected to be wreckage of helicopter.’

Iranian rescuers rushed to the site, state TV reported. The coordinates listed in the footage put the fire some 12 miles south of the Azerbaijan-Iranian border on the side of a steep mountain. 

It comes as state media claimed that allied Russia sent a 50-man specialist mountain rescue unit to assist the search. The Russian Ministry of Emergency Situations confirmed it in a Telegram post. Approximately 73 teams, plus detector dogs, are involved, per Iran’s Red Crescent.

Rescuers were last night struggling to locate the Iranian president after the helicopter he was travelling in crashed in bad weather.

The men were on board one of three helicopters travelling in convoy over remote mountainous terrain cloaked in heavy fog when the aircraft went down. 

Raisi, Foreign Minister Hossein Amir Abdollahian; Governor of Eastern Azerbaijan province Malek Rahmati, Tabriz’s Friday prayer Imam Mohammad Ali Alehashem as well as a pilot, copilot, crew chief, head of security and another bodyguard, according to Iranian media. 

He was seen in an eerie staring out of the window of the aircraft, which was traveling in Iran’s East Azerbaijan province near Jolfa, around 375 miles northwest of Tehran when it crashed.

Rain and a lack of roads were hampering rescue attempts, the official said.