Helicopter Crash Tragedy: Iran's Military Leader Releases Fresh Details on President Raisi's Death

President Ibrahim Raisi

Iranian chief of staff provides new information on President Raisi's and six other people's deaths in a helicopter crash.

New information regarding the President Ibrahim Raisi's helicopter crash death has been made public by his chief of staff, Gholam-Hossein Esmaili.

It is worth recalling that on Sunday, May 19, President Raisi's helicopter crashed in the East Azerbaijan region of the country, in a mountainous and forested location.

The weather throughout the flight was normal, according to Esmaili, who was traveling in a different helicopter that made a safe landing.

The chief of staff stated, “After our noon prayers, we departed towards the direction of Tabriz. The weather was clear, there was no weather conditions to be worried about. After half an hour of being in the air, prior to reaching the Sungun copper mine, there was a small patch of clouds.”

When asked if there was a fog, he replied, “Not at all. There was fog on the ground, but not in up the air where we were advancing with the helicopters. However, in one small compacted area, there was a small patch of clouds above a cliff. In terms of height, this cloud was at the same height as our flight's height.

“It was there when the now-martyred helicopter pilot, who was also the commander of the fleet, told the rest of the pilots to ascend above the clouds. We were the third pilot, behind the president's helicopter. We came above the clouds, we advanced for approximately 30 seconds. Our pilot suddenly realized that the main helicopter carrying the president was missing.”

Regarding whether or not he observed the helicopter after climbing, Esmaili responded, “Yes exactly, after ascending above the clouds, we didn't see the main helicopter. The ascension itself didn't feel difficult. Sometimes, when we use the plane we feel turbulence but we don't feel anything at all inside the helicopter this time when ascending. And after we ascended there were no other clouds.”

He continued by saying that no weather disturbances that would have made their trip risky had been mentioned in the forecasts.

The head of staff continued, “Shortly after, we were able to see beneath us and there were no clouds anymore and we had reached the area of the copper mine. We realized however that our pilot was making a U-turn suddenly so I asked him why. He said that one of our helicopters was missing. We estimate that they made an emergency landing because we also have no radio contact with it anymore. So I asked him when was the last time contact was made. The pilot answered 'A minute and 30 seconds ago when the pilot told us to ascend above the clouds.

“Our pilot circled the area a couple of times, but the area with the cloud patch was also invisible to us and it was too risky to enter that area. We failed several times to make any radio contact. We were forced to make a landing after 30 seconds at the Sungun copper mine to investigate.

“During the flight, we had continuous cell phone calls with the passengers, including the bodyguard, Abdollahian, the governor of East Azerbaijan, and the Friday imam of Tabriz. However, we tried calling all of them without luck.

“After some tries, calling the cellphone of the captain accompanying the president, someone picked up the phone. It was Ayatollah Hashem, the Friday imam of Tabriz. He told us that he is not feeling well. He didn't tell us anything special. I asked him what exactly had happened. He told us that he didn't know what had happened, and when asked about his whereabouts, he said that he didn't know. He only described what he could see, described to us what he saw, saying he was surrounded by trees. I asked him about the condition of the others, Ayatollah replied that he was alone and couldn't see anyone else and he's alone.

“The chopper mine had good facilities such as ambulances and the necessary vehicles. We formed a team to go and search for them. We requested for immediate emergency help as well.”

Six other persons, including crew members, perished in the helicopter tragedy. All of the passengers were confirmed dead after the burnt wreckage was discovered early on Monday, May 20, close to the Iranian hamlet of Tawil.

Some of Iran's neighboring countries have declared national mourning.