Iranian state television reported there was “no sign of life” at the crash site of a helicopter carrying President Ebrahim Raisi that crashed in the country’s northwest.
According to state media, Iranian emergency services had previously located the crash site and reported seeing wreckage. The site is near the village of Tavil in northwestern Iran.
Dense fog in the region has hampered search efforts, state media reported. Iran’s Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei urged people to pray for Raisi’s health and said there would be “no disruption to the country’s affairs” due to the incident, according to a statement broadcast on state television.
Raisi, an ultra-conservative cleric in his 60s who won Iran’s 2021 presidential election, is considered the favorite to succeed Supreme Leader Khamenei.
The incident comes at a time of unrest in the Middle East over the Gaza war between Israel and the Iran-backed Hamas – which is classified as a terrorist organization by the US and the European Union. It has brought Iran and Israel close to full-scale conflict and led other Tehran-backed groups, including the Houthis in Yemen and Shiite militias in Iraq, to attack U.S. bases and merchant ships in the Red Sea sea.
Raisi’s air fleet consisted of three helicopters carrying senior officials, including Foreign Minister Hossein Amirabdollahian, the semi-official Tasnim news agency reported. Amirabdollahian was believed to be on board Raisi’s plane at the time.
The United States is closely following reports of the incident, a State Department spokesman said without further comment. Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer said Sunday that the intelligence community had told him there was no evidence of a crime, NBC reported reported.
“Extremely difficult” search
Almost 10 hours after the search began, the search was “extremely difficult” due to darkness, heavy fog and rain, Pirhossein Koulivand, head of Iran’s rescue service, told state television. Earlier, Iranian Interior Minister Ahmad Vahidi said the search for the president’s helicopter would likely take some time due to the adverse conditions.
Turkey’s state disaster agency, AFAD, said Iran had requested a search and rescue helicopter with night vision capabilities. About 32 rescue and research workers and six vehicles were also sent to Iran, AFAD said in a post on X.
Turkey’s Defense Ministry said it dispatched an Akinci drone in response to a request from Iran. It also said a Cougar helicopter remained on alert and could be deployed depending on weather conditions.
The European Union activated its rapid response mapping service after Iran asked for help, said Janez Lenarčič, EU Commissioner for Crisis Management, in a post on X.
Iranian television broadcast live footage of scores of ambulances in heavy rain and fog. A reporter stationed near the rescue teams mentioned the challenges in reaching the crash site, citing impassable roads due to mud and the remoteness of the area.
The broadcast also showed pilgrims praying for Raisi at the holy shrine in Mashhad, the northeastern city where Raisi was born.
Also on board Raisi’s helicopter were the governor of East Azerbaijan province and the Supreme Leader’s representative in the city of Tabriz, according to Iranian media.
Both Raisi and Amirabdollahian oversaw the restoration of Iran’s diplomatic relations with Saudi Arabia through a China-brokered deal announced in March 2023. But it was also a time of stalemate in negotiations over reviving Iran’s nuclear deal with world powers and lifting economic sanctions.
Early Sunday, Raisi met his Azerbaijani counterpart Ilham Aliyev to inaugurate a jointly developed dam on the border between the two countries. The incident occurred when Raisi was returning from Iran’s East Azerbaijan province.
Raisi’s ascension to the presidency came after eight years under the relatively moderate Hassan Rouhani, who played a central role in the nuclear deal from which former President Donald Trump withdrew the United States in 2018.
The US withdrawal from the agreement strengthened the hardliners in Iran, who were always critical of the agreement. Raisi was sanctioned in 2019 by the Trump administration, which cited his role in a deadly crackdown on protesters a decade ago over election fraud.
Human rights groups also accuse him of playing a key role in the mass execution of thousands of political dissidents in the late 1980s. In 2018, London-based Amnesty International said he chaired a “death commission” and called on the United Nations to investigate him for crimes against humanity.
Raisi’s first vice president is Mohammad Mokhber, who has recently represented Iran on many foreign trips and to whom he, like many senior Iranian officials, reports US sanctions.