The helicopter carrying Iranian President Ibrahim Raisi and Foreign Minister Hossein Amir Abdollahian that crashed was a Bell-212 model made by the United States.
According to a Reuters report, citing Iran’s state news agency IRNA, Raisi and Abdollahian were aboard a medium-sized Bell-212 helicopter, which has a seating capacity of 15 people, including the pilot. Despite the helicopter being made in the USA, it is noteworthy that the United States has not sold any such helicopters to Iran since the Islamic Revolution in 1979.
President Raisi was returning from an inauguration ceremony for a dam built in cooperation with Azerbaijan on Sunday. The President of Azerbaijan, Ilham Aliyev, was also present at the event. Raisi and his entourage, which included other officials, were traveling back to Tabriz, the capital of Iran’s East Azerbaijan province, in a fleet of three helicopters when the crash occurred.
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The helicopter carrying President Raisi crashed in a remote mountainous area near the Zolfa region of East Azerbaijan. The other two helicopters in the fleet reached their destination safely. A large-scale search operation is underway in the mountainous region, but rescue efforts are being significantly hampered by adverse weather conditions, including heavy rain and dense fog.
Iranian state television attributed the crash primarily to hostile weather conditions. Early Monday morning, video footage showed rescuers, dressed in brightly colored jackets and equipped with headlamps, searching the remote mountainous area on foot.
A regional army commander appeared on Iranian state television, assuring that every inch of the crash site would be thoroughly searched. The area is experiencing severe winter conditions, with heavy fog and significant rainfall, complicating the rescue operations further.