Iran says no signs of foul play in wreckage of helicopter crash that killed Raisi
Report by Iranian military says ‘no bullet holes or similar impacts’ found at crash site to indicate Iranian helicopter was attacked, flight did not sway from pre-designated route
TEHRAN, Iran — The helicopter carrying Iran’s late president Ebrahim Raisi caught fire soon after it crashed into a mountain and there was no sign it was attacked, state media reported, citing the military’s crash investigators.
The statement from the general staff of the armed forces in charge of investigating the crash was read on state television late Thursday and ruled out foul play. The first statement on the crash did not lay blame but said more details would come after further investigation.
“No bullet holes or similar impacts were observed on the helicopter wreckage,” said a preliminary report by the general staff of the armed forces published by the official IRNA news agency.
“The helicopter caught fire after hitting an elevated area,” it continued, adding that “no suspicious content was observed during the communications between the watch tower and the flight crew.”
Raisi’s helicopter had been flying on a “pre-planned route and did not leave the designated flight path” before the crash.
The report said the wreckage of the helicopter had been found by Iranian drones early on Monday but the “complexity of the area, fog and low temperatures” hindered the work of search and rescue teams.
The general staff’s statement said the communications between the control tower and the crew of the helicopter before the crash contained nothing suspicious. It said the last communication of the crashed helicopter was between it and two helicopters accompanying it some 90 seconds before the crash.
The Iranian military said “more time is needed” to investigate the crash and that it will provide additional details at a later date.
The crash on Sunday killed the 63-year-old Raisi, Iranian Foreign Minister Hossein Amir-Abdollahian and six other people when an aging Bell helicopter went down in a foggy, remote mountainous region of Iran’s northwest while returning from a dam inauguration on the border with Azerbaijan.
Raisi was buried in a tomb at the Imam Reza Shrine in Mashhad on Thursday.
