The helicopter of Iran’s late President Raisi crashed due to weather, Fars says

DUBAI – The recent analysis of the helicopter mishap in May that involved Iran’s President Ebrahim Raisi revealed that it was caused by adverse weather conditions and the helicopter’s capability to accommodate its excessive load weight, a report by Iran’s semi-official Fars news agency showed on Wednesday. The report presented the conclusion based on the preliminary investigation conducted by an anonymous source from the security services on the fatal occurrence. 

 After the crash, in May, Iran’s military reported a preliminary investigation, which did not reveal any sign of a sabotaged act or an external assault on the aircraft. According to the reporter from Fars, the same security source affirmed the end of the investigation, saying, ‘It was ascertained beyond doubt that the incident of the crashing of Ayatollah Raisi’s helicopter was an accident. ’ 

 It became evident that two factors were significant and central to the accident. The first was the unfavorable weather conditions during the flight, which were dark and had poor visibility. The second factor was the helicopter‘s incapability to deal with the load it was carrying, which caused the mode of transport to plunge into a nearby mountain. Finally, the source expounded. 

 Additional information from the inquiry showed that this helicopter carried up to four more individuals than was considered safe under acceptable security standards. This overcrowding influenced the helicopter’s inability to deal with the adverse weather that caused the disastrous crash. 

 63-year-old Ebrahim Raisi had a strict political profile and was considered one of the possible successors of the Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei. Incidentally, the crash was in a mountainous area close to the Azerbaijani border on May 19, going away Raisi’s life and political journey. Besides Raisi, as many as eight other high-ranking Iranian officials perished in the crash, including the country’s foreign minister at that time, Hossein Amir-Abdollahian, the governor of East Azerbaijan province, and the Friday prayer leader of Tabriz. 

 The unfortunate helicopter was on its way back from the Iran-Azerbaijan border, where Mr Raisi and his entourage attended the inauguration of a dam with President Ilham Aliyev of Azerbaijan. The flight turned fatal, as the helicopter was caught up in bad weather in the northwestern province of east Azarbaijan, resulting in the accident. 

 In the first reports about the accident, adverse weather was claimed to have significantly impacted the catastrophe’s occurrence. Besides, it complicated the subsequent search and rescue operations in the hardly accessible area of the crash. The area is rugged, and the conditions under which the accident occurred meant it was a real challenge for rescue teams to get to the disaster scene. 

 Soon after the crash, that he was murdered in cold blood was the speculation that sent the Iranian people and the world into a spin, given that a prominent political figure in the country had been so brutally taken. Yet, Tehran has not supported such an assumption, and the disclosed investigation results have not referred to any extra or ill-intentioned factors as the cause of the accident. 

 Nevertheless, Iranian authorities have continued to pay emphasis on the conclusion of their probe, which has pointed to the fact that the crash’s fundamental proximate causes were mainly meteorological and due to excess payload in the helicopter on the ill-fated day. The catastrophe has left a lasting imprint, as the president and several other high-ranking officials of Iran are gone as suddenly as in one tragic moment. 

 Speculation is virtual. Since this is a natural occurrence that is catastrophic in the aviation industry, the country has faced this loss by acknowledging that safety measures should be taken at all times and that the weather can be unpredictable. It is an unpleasant signal of the dangers always associated with aviation, especially in such territories as the mountainous ones of East Azerbaijan.