Helicopter with Iranian president on board suffers ‘hard landing’: Live updates
State media reports that Iranian President Ebrahim Raisi and entourage traveling in by helicopter entourage encountered a “hard landing.”
President was in country’s East Azerbaijan province, located in Iran’s northwest.
It is unclear what happened to the helicopter, and semi-official Tasnim news agency is describing the occurrence as an ‘incident’. The aircraft was also reportedly carrying the country’s Foreign Minister Hossein Amirabdollahian. Difficult weather conditions and fog have hampered the efforts of the rescue teams, state TV has also said.
19 May 2024
18:38 GMT
The Iranian Red Crescent Society is denying reports that Raisi’s helicopter had been discovered. An earlier communication was reported by PressTV by mistake. So far, only the coordinates of the crash have been established.
18:21 GMT
Iranian state TV now reports that the crashed helicopter has been found. There is no information on Raisi’s condition yet.
18:20 GMT
According to Mohsen Mansouri, the deputy to the president for executive affairs, one of the officials on Raisi’s helicopter and a member of the flight crew was able to reach out after the incident occurred.
“This was one of the hopeful points in this. This shows that the severity of the incident was not very high because two of the people who were on the flight contacted our people in several instances,” the official, who is leading the search at the site, was reported by state television as having said.
The Red Crescent reported that 65 teams are currently operating in the area, and officials believe they are close to locating the helicopter.
18:03 GMT
Special forces from the Iranian Army and the IRGC have reached the helicopter crash site and are carrying out nighttime search operations.
17:23 GMT
European Commissioner for Crisis Management, Janez Lenarčič, announced that, following a request from Iran, the EU is activating its Copernicus EMS rapid response satellite mapping service.
17:07 GMT
West Jerusalem had nothing to do with the crash of the Iranian president’s helicopter, Israeli Channel 13 reports, citing officials.
16:08 GMT
US President Biden is rushing to the White House for an emergency meeting following Raisi’s helicopter incident, an administration official told Reuters.
15:50 GMT
IRIB News on Telegram is reporting that the search teams are approaching the accident site.
15:34 GMT
In the event of the death of Raisi, the person expected to replace him in office, at least temporarily, is First Vice President Mohammad Mokhber.
https://www.rt.com/news/597844-raisi-iran-president-helicopter/