Raisi Chopper Crash Foul Play Or Technical Glitch?: Speculations Rise On Iran’s President’s Death

A Bell 212 helicopter carrying Irans president and foreign minister crashed on Sunday, according to Iranian state media, as it flew through mountains in heavy fog. The tragic crash claims the lives of the Iranian President Ibrahim Raisi, Foreign Affairs Minister Aamir Abdullahyan and other officials travelling in the ill-fated helicopter. The helicopter was carrying Iranian President Ibrahim Raisi, the country's Foreign Minister Qusain Amir Abdullahyan, the governor of Iran E Azerbaijan province and other officials and bodyguards, according to the state-run IRNA news agency. Raisi was returning from a trip to Irans border with Azerbaijan early Sunday to inaugurate to Tam with Azerbaijan President Ilan Aliyev, the news agency said. The helicopter apparently crashed or median emergency landing in the Bismarck forest between the cities of Wazakhan and Jolfa in Iran's East Azerbaijan province near its border with Azerbaijan, under circumstances that remain unclear. Initially. Interior Minister Ahmed Wahidi said the helicopter was forced to make a hard landing due to the bad weather and fog. Raisi, with other leaders and officials, was travelling aboard a Bell 212 helicopter. Dell Helicopter, now Bell Textron, a division of Textron Inc, developed the aircraft for the Canadian military in the late 1960s as an upgrade of the original UH one Iroquois. The new design used 2 turbo shaft engines instead of 1, giving it greater carrying capacity. The helicopter was introduced in 1971 and quickly adopted at both the US and Canada, according to U.S. military training documents. As a utility helicopter, the UH in its military designation represents those words. The belt 212 is meant to be adaptable to all sorts of situations, including carrying people, deploying aerial firefighting gear, ferrying cargo and mounting weapons. The Iranian model that crashed on Sunday was configured to carry government passengers. Bell Helicopter advertises the latest version, the Subaru Belt 412, for police use, medical transport to transport the energy industry and firefighting. According to its type certification document with the European Union Aviation Safety Agency, it can carry 15 people including the crew non military organizations that fly the belt 212 include Japanese Coast Guard, law enforcement agencies and fire departments in the US, Thailand National Police and many others. It is not clear how many runs government operates, but its Air Force and Navy have a total of 10, according to Flight Globals 2024 World Air Forces Directory. The most recent fatal crash of a Bell 212 was in September 2023, when a privately operated aircraft crashed off the coast of the UAE, according to the Flight Safety Foundation, a nonprofit focusing on aviation safety. The most recent Iranian crash of the ties was in 2018, killing four people, according to the organizations database. Iran enters a period of mourning as Mohammed Moghdev assumes interim leadership following President Ricey's tragic demise in a helicopter crash. Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei announced A5 day mourning period and tasked Moghdev with overseeing the executive branch until a new president is elected within 50 days. Subscribe to 1I channel and never miss an update.