Iran announces the death of the Iranian President and his entourage in the helicopter crash in East Azerbaijan

Published on May 20, 2024

Ansarollah website – Follow-ups

The Islamic Republic of Iran announced the death of President Ebrahim Raisi, Foreign Minister Hossein Amir Abdollahian, and their accompanying delegation in the crash of the helicopter they were traveling in in the airspace of East Azerbaijan. Mehr Agency announced the martyrdom of Iranian President Ebrahim Raisi and his accompanying delegation, including Iranian Foreign Minister Hossein Amir Abdollahian.

The agency stressed that the Iranian President and his companions received certification in an air accident while performing their work duty in northwestern Iran. The Iranian Tasnim Agency, citing the Red Crescent, confirmed that the wreckage of the helicopter that was carrying Raisi, Amir Abdullahian, the Governor-General of East Azerbaijan Province, Malek Rahmati, and Ayatollah Al-Hashemi, the representative of the Leader of the Revolution and the Islamic Republic, Sayyed Ali Khamenei, had been found. Simultaneously with the arrival of rescue teams to the site, Iranian television confirmed that “there was no sign of life” in the wreckage of the Iranian president’s helicopter.

The helicopter that went down was one of three helicopters, and it was carrying Raisi and his accompanying delegation, and also carrying the Iranian Foreign Minister, Hossein Amir Abdollahian, and other officials. The Iranian President’s helicopter and his accompanying delegation suffered a difficult landing while it was transporting them to East Azerbaijan Province.

According to Iranian television, Raisi’s helicopter was forced to land due to bad weather conditions, and contact with it was lost at 1:30 p.m., according to the executive assistant to the Iranian president, Mohsen Mansouri. The search operations to find the wreckage of the helicopter encountered many obstacles, due to fog and heavy rain, while the temperature reached 15 degrees below zero. Before the incident occurred, the Iranian President and his accompanying delegation were on a visit to Azerbaijan, where Raisi and his Azerbaijani counterpart, Ilham Aliyev, opened on Sunday the “Qayz Qalasi” dam, which was built jointly between the two neighboring countries on the Aras River.