Iran’s army has found no evidence of suspicious activity in the helicopter crash that killed President Ebrahim Raisi and seven others, according to state media reports.
President Raisi, 63, perished along with his entourage on Sunday when their helicopter crashed in Iran’s mountainous northwest. The group was returning from the inauguration of a dam near the Azerbaijan border when the incident occurred.
A preliminary report from the general staff of the armed forces, released by the official IRNA news agency late Thursday evening, stated, “No bullet holes or similar impacts were observed on the helicopter wreckage.” The report detailed that the helicopter caught fire after hitting an elevated area and that “no suspicious content was observed during the communications between the watch tower and the flight crew.”
The ill-fated helicopter had been flying on a “pre-planned route and did not leave the designated flight path” prior to the crash, the report noted. Iranian drones located the wreckage early Monday, but “complexity of the area, fog, and low temperature” hampered search and rescue operations.
The army emphasized that “more time is needed” to fully investigate the crash and promised to disclose more information as the investigation progresses.
President Raisi was laid to rest in his hometown of Mashhad on Thursday, following several days of funeral ceremonies held in major Iranian cities, including Tehran. Thousands of mourners attended these events, paying their respects to the late president.
Among the victims of the crash was Foreign Minister Hossein Amir-Abdollahian, who was buried on Thursday in Shahre Ray, a town south of Tehran. The loss of such high-ranking officials has plunged the nation into mourning and raised questions about the safety protocols for government flights.
The tragic accident marks a significant moment in Iranian history, as the country comes to terms with the sudden loss of its leader and other key officials.
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