Iranian President Ebrahim Raisi Dies In Chopper Crash

 Iran announced five days of public mourning on Monday, after the wreckage of a helicopter carrying Presi­dent Ebrahim Raisi  ( 14 December 1960 – 19 May 2024) and his entourage was found among the mountains in the country’s remote western regions.

                                             

On Monday, First Vice President Mohammad Mokhber was picked to become interim president, while the military’s chief of staff Mohammad Bagheri ordered a probe into the cause of the helicopter crash.

“A high-ranking committee to launch an investigation into the cause of the president’s helicopter crash”, ISNA news agency reported.

“The funeral ceremonies for the president and his companions will take place Tuesday at 9:30 am local time (0600 GMT) in Tabriz”, the official IRNA news agency said, adding that Raisi’s body will later be taken to Tehran.

A thick blanket of fog had shrouded the mountains where President Ebrahim Raisi’s helicopter crashed, keeping the wreckage hidden for around 15 hours.

Radio contact was lost on Sunday afternoon, but it took an all-night effort involving hundreds of search and rescue crew before the wreckage was found shortly after the sun rose on Monday.

First Vice President Mohammad Mokhber (left) addresses the cabinet in Tehran, with the seat of late president Raisi next to him left empty out of respect, on Monday.—AFP

When the first teams finally reached the crash site on a steep and soggy slope, covered in sparse mountain forest, they found the twisted remains of the blue and white Bell 212 helicopter, surrounded by soot-covered debris strewn across the low scrub of the range in East Azerbaijan province.

There were no survivors among the nine people on board at the accident site, located some three kilometres northeast of the small village of Tavil.

The victims included the president, foreign minister Hossein Amir-Abdollahian, a provincial governor and an imam, the aircraft’s three crew and two bodyguards, officials said.

Many of the remains were charred, but they could be identified without DNA tests, an official told Tasnim news agency.

After a night that had seen mass prayers at mosques across the country, state media reported that the aircraft had “hit the mountain and disintegrated” on impact, leaving “no signs of life”.

Iranians had been captivated by the search, and images from the crash were shared on social media, including one that showed a victim in a white shirt lying amid the debris and dense foliage.

Loyalists packed into mosques and squares to pray for Raisi, but most shops remained open and the authorities made little effort to interrupt ordinary life. Opponents even posted furtive video online of people passing out sweets to celebrate his death.

Iranians gather at Tehran’s Valiasr Square, on Monday, to mourn the death of President Ebrahim Raisi and Foreign Minister Hossein Amir-Abdollahian.—AFP

But, according to Reuters, there was little of the emotional rhetoric that accompanied the deaths of publicly revered figures, like Qasem Soleimani, a senior commander of Iran’s elite Revolutionary Guards killed by a US missile in 2020 in Iraq, whose funeral drew huge crowds of mourners, weeping with sorrow and rage.

The crash came as Raisi and his entourage were on their way back from East Azer­baijan province, after having inaugurated a dam project with the Azeri president.