Helicopter carrying Iranian President Raisi crashes, local media reports
(CNN) — A helicopter carrying Iranian President Ebrahim Raisi crashed while visiting a northern region and his condition is currently unknown, Iranian state news agency IRNA reported Sunday.
The aircraft, which was also carrying Foreign Minister Hossein Amir Abdollahian, came down in East Azerbaijan Province and emergency crews have so far been unable to reach it due to foggy conditions, IRNA said. It is unclear what the exact status is of Raisi’s helicopter.
The Iranian armed forces have been in the area of the crash since the early hours of Sunday, Chief of Staff of Iranian Armed Forces Mohammad Bagheri said. Twenty rescue teams and drones were sent to the area where the helicopter came down.
Raisi and Amir Abdollahian were among a group of dignitaries onboard the helicopter returning from a ceremony for an opening of a dam on Iran’s border with Azerbaijan when it “crashed upon landing in Varzaqan region on Sunday,” IRNA English reported.
IRNA also reported, citing locals, the helicopter crashed in the Dizmar Forest area between the villages of Ozi and Pir Davood. Residents in northern Varzeqan, East Azerbaijan Province, said they heard noises from the area, it added.
Iran’s interior minister Ahmad Vahidi said one of the helicopters was forced to make a hard landing due to foggy weather conditions.
“Now different rescue groups are moving towards the area but given that it is foggy and the unsuitable weather and the conditions it may take some time until they reach where the helicopter is,” said Vahidi during a televised address posted on Telegram by Iranian state news agency IRNA.
He added that there had been some contact with the passengers on the helicopter, “but given the area is a bit complicated, making contact is difficult and we are waiting inshallah for rescue groups to quickly reach the location of this accident where the helicopter is and give us more information.”
“From the beginning of this incident being reported regarding the President’s helicopter, Red Crescent Relief Forces and auxiliary military and law enforcement forces have started a widespread effort to find this helicopter,” Tasnim news agency reported.
“Some of the president’s companions on this helicopter were able to communicate with Central Headquarters, raising hopes that the incident could have ended without casualties,” Tasnim added.
The helicopter was part of a convoy of three helicopters. Two of those helicopters were carrying ministers and officials who arrived at their destination safely, according to Tasnim.
Who is President Raisi?
Raisi, a former hardline judiciary chief, is Iran’s eighth president. The former prosecutor and judge was elected in 2021 following a historically uncompetitive presidential contest.
Born in 1960, he attended the seminary in Qom and earned a Ph.D in law from Shahid Motahari University. He started his career as a prosecutor in the early 1980s, becoming prosecutor general of Tehran in 1994, prosecutor general of Iran in 2014, and chief justice of the country in 2019.
His two years as Iran’s chief justice were marked by the intensified repression of dissent and human rights abuses, according to the Center for Human Rights in Iran.
The US Department of the Treasury sanctioned Raisi in November 2019, citing his participation in the 1988 “death commission” as a prosecutor and a United Nations report indicating that Iran’s judiciary approved the execution of at least nine children between 2018 and 2019.
In June 2021, he ran against his predecessor, former President Hassan Rouhani, a moderate, and won 18 million of the nearly 29 million ballots cast. His inauguration was seen to signal the start of a new harder-line era that could herald major shifts in the Islamic Republic’s policies at home and abroad.
While Iran was engulfed in the Woman Life Freedom protest movement in 2022, Raisi withdrew from a long-planned interview with CNN’s chief international anchor Christiane Amanpour at the United Nations General Assembly in New York on Wednesday, after she declined a last-minute demand to wear a head scarf.
Correction: This story has been updated to correct that the reported incident took place in East Azerbaijan Province of Iran.
This is a developing story and will be updated.
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