Crashed helicopter: All eyes on Iran as world awaits president’s fate

A helicopter carrying President Ebrahim Raisi of Iran crash-landed in northwestern Iran, on Sunday afternoon.

Following the incident, Iranian state media reported that extensive search operations were underway but were being impeded by poor weather conditions.

The crash occurred near Jolfa in Iran’s East Azerbaijan province.

Al Jazeera quoted Iran’s Supreme Leader, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, as expressing concern over the situation in a meeting with families of Revolutionary Guard Corps personnel.

Khamenei urged the country to pray for Raisi and others who were in the helicopter.

“We hope that God returns the honourable president and his companions to the arms of the nation,” he said.

He also urged Iranians not to worry and stressed that there would be “no disruption” in governance.

Raisi was reported to be returning from a ceremony to open a dam on Iran’s border with Azerbaijan when the helicopter crash landed.

The dam is the third one that the two nations built on the Aras River, and it comes amid chilly relations between the two countries.

Three helicopters were in the Iranian president’s convoy, and the two others made it back safely, State-linked media said.

Meanwhile, the crashed helicopter has been found by the search teams, Reuters reported quoting state television.

There are no details as to the conditions of President Raisi and the other officials on board.

One of the officials on Raisi’s helicopter and a member of the flight crew made contact after the helicopter suffered the incident, Mohsen Mansouri, the president’s deputy for executive affairs, said.

“This was one of the hopeful points in this. This shows that the severity of the incident was not very high because two of the people who were on the flight contacted our people on several instances,” the official, who is leading the search at the site, told state television.

Turkey has deployed night vision helicopters to aid in the search for Iran’s missing president.

“We sent a crew of 6 vehicles and 32 experts to Iran in search and rescue in mountainous areas. We have put a team of 15 research experts on alert to move to Iran. 5 of our teams are almost approaching the helicopter coordinates announced by the Iranian Space,” Turkish government announced on Sunday night.