A helicopter carrying Iranian President, Ebrahim Raisi, has suffered a “hard landing”, state television reported, as officials said search and rescue operations were underway but were being impeded by poor weather conditions.
Iranian state media said the incident occurred on Sunday near Jolfa in Iran’s East Azerbaijan province. Iran’s Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei has since issued a statement saying the nation “should pray” for Raisi.
People who were with the president in the helicopter managed to make an emergency call, increasing hopes that the incident could be concluded “without fatalities”, according to the semi-official Tasnim News Agency.
Twenty rescue teams and drones have been sent to the area where the helicopter came down, amid bad weather conditions.Raisi was returning from a visit to neighbouring Azerbaijan, where he had travelled to inaugurate a dam alongside the country’s President Ilham Aliyev.
State-linked media said three helicopters were in the Iranian president’s convoy, and the two others made it back safely. Foreign Minister, Hossein Amir-Abdollahian; East Azerbaijan Governor; Malek Rahmati, and Ayatollah Mohammad Ali Ale-Hashem, the representative of the Iranian supreme leader to the province, were in the same helicopter.
Energy Minister, Ali Akbar Mehrabian and Housing and Transportation Minister Mehrdad Bazrpash were in the other helicopters that made it back safely.
It remains unclear exactly what caused the “hard landing”, or whether any of the passengers in the helicopter have been hurt.
Interior Minister, Ahmad Vahidi, confirmed that radio contact was made with the helicopter, but offered no further details, and suggested communication lines have been cut.
Government news website IRNA said the president’s helicopter is believed to have crashed in the Dizmar Protected Area, a forested and mountainous zone. There is no confirmation on what type of helicopter was carrying the president and his team.
However, Iran operates a variety of helicopters, but decades of sanctions have made it difficult to purchase new aircraft or obtain parts. Many of the military aircraft currently in service in Iran date back to before the country’s 1979 revolution.
