IRAN CRASH LIVE UPDATES
President Raisi’s helicopter crashes; rescuers struggle in dense fog
May 19, 2024 at 10:36 p.m. EDT
A helicopter carrying Iranian President Ebrahim Raisi crashed in foggy weather in the country’s mountainous northwest, according to state-run media, which said Iranian Foreign Minister Hossein Amir-Abdollahian and other officials were also on board. Their condition is not yet known, and the helicopter has not been found. A state television broadcast showed rescue teams in vehicles and on foot moving through dense fog.
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The helicopter was one of three traveling in Iran’s East Azerbaijan province as the president returned from a visit to Azerbaijan. At least 40 rescue teams were heading to the area, but crews struggled because of the mountainous terrain and poor visibility, according to state media.
Raisi was elected president in 2021, widely seen as the choice of Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei, after a career in Iran’s judiciary. While in office he has overseen a tightening of morality laws, violent crackdowns on anti-government protests and Iran’s first direct attack on Israel.
One state-run channel called on viewers to pray for “the health of the president and his crew to come out of this accident in full health.” Khamenei posted on social media that he hoped “Almighty God will return the respected, esteemed President and his entourage to the arms of the nation.”
President Biden has been briefed on the situation, a White House spokesperson said.
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22 min ago
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By Kelly Kasulis Cho
Breaking News Reporter/Editor
Search and rescue teams were dispatched to the northwestern Iranian city of Tabriz, Iran state-run news agency Press TV reported, after Turkish state media said that a Turkish drone identified a heat source that could be the missing helicopter. The state-run Anadolu Agency shared video of rescue workers examining a site in northwestern Iran.
2 hours ago
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By Praveena Somasundaram
General Assignment reporter
Russia plans to send two planes and 50 mountain rescuers to assist in the East Azerbaijan search, Iranian state-run media reported, citing conversations between top officials from both countries. The planes will fly to Iran on Monday morning local time, the state-run news agency reported.
7:35 p.m. EDT
Raisi has inspired little enthusiasm in Iran, scholar says
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By Kim Bellware
Reporter covering national breaking news and features
In 2021, Ebrahim Raisi won Iran’s presidency in a landslide. But his victory did not reflect popular enthusiasm: It came amid the lowest voter turnout in a presidential election since the Iranian Revolution in 1979 and reflected a consolidation of power by the country’s hard-line conservative establishment.
Three years later, Raisi has done little to increase his popularity, said Nahid Siamdoust, a professor of Middle Eastern studies at the University of Texas at Austin.
“He’s mostly known as an uncharismatic underperformer,” Siamdoust said. “He lost the shine that came from the lack of knowledge people had about him.”
Raisi enters the last stretch of his four-year term viewed by many Iranians as a lame duck and an extension of Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, Iran’s supreme leader, Siamdoust said. And while he’s considered a favorite to succeed Khomeni, Raisi has seen the power of his office diminish.
Under Iran’s political structure, the president does not control the armed forces or the national purse strings. But Raisi has been instrumental in expanding Iran’s regional influence, escalating tensions with Israel and overseeing crackdowns on anti-government protests that arose from “morality police” enforcing harsh restrictions on women’s dress.
In the eyes of older Iranians, Raisi’s career is also clouded by his association with the mass executions of political prisoners in 1988, around the end of the Iran-Iraq War. He allegedly served on a commission that sentenced those prisoners to death.
“Iran’s been going through its toughest years since the revolution in terms of politics and the economy. And [Raisi] has been the one, theoretically, at the helm,” Siamdoust said. “Iranians have seen their worst years under him.”
MAP OF SEARCH AREA ACCORDING TO RED CRESCENT OFFICIALS
6:22 p.m. EDT
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By Laris Karklis
Maps
During a television broadcast, an International Red Cross and Red Crescent official described the active search area, 55 miles north of the provincial capital of Tabriz, as roughly 20 to 30 square miles in mountainous terrain.
The dam that Iranian President Ebrahim Raisi visited before the helicopter crash is approximately 30 miles away.
5:06 p.m. EDT
Iran has a supreme leader. So what is the president’s role?
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By Kim Bellware
Reporter covering national breaking news and features
Iranian President Ebrahim Raisi prepares to speak at the U.N. General Assembly in September 2022. (Anna Moneymaker/Getty Images)
With a president, legislative body and a judiciary, three branches of Iran’s government at first glance bear basic similarities to the United States. The key difference? The supreme leader, Iran’s head of state and top authority over religious, military and political life.
An 86-member council of clerics known as the Assembly of Experts selects the supreme leader, while the public elects the president, the second-highest official in Iran. (Critics say the country’s elections are often predetermined.)
The president runs day-to-day governance but is subordinate to the supreme leader, who holds the strongest financial, political, social and religious power. The supreme leader sets Iran’s social and political agenda, commands the armed forces and controls the multibillion-dollar quasi-governmental financial organization Setad. He chooses succession plans, such as the approval of the first vice president to assume presidential powers in the event that the president dies, becomes ill or is incapacitated.
Raisi has been floated as a potential successor to Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, the current supreme leader.
5:00 p.m. EDT
Other nations offer aid, prayers
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By Kyle Melnick, Mustafa Salim and Kareem Fahim
Leaders in Asia and Europe expressed concern for Iranian President Ebrahim Raisi on Sunday and offered support to Iran’s search.
Turkey’s disaster and emergency management agency said on X that it was sending 32 search-and-rescue employees to Iran. The agency said Iran requested a night-vision search and a rescue helicopter. It said more search-and-rescue employees were standing by.
Iraqi Prime Minister Mohammed Shia al-Sudani, whose government has close ties with Tehran, directed the Interior Ministry to assist the search for Raisi’s helicopter. He also requested that the Iraqi Red Crescent Society provide aid.
Janez Lenarcic, the E.U. commissioner for crisis management, said on X the European Union was using its satellite mapping technology in the region where the crash was reported.
Leaders from Azerbaijan and Armenia said on social media that they were prepared to assist Iran.
“Our prayers to Allah Almighty are with President Ebrahim Raisi and the accompanying delegation,” Azerbaijani President Ilham Aliyev wrote on X. “As a neighbor, friend, and brotherly country, the Republic of Azerbaijan stands ready to offer any assistance needed.”
Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi and Pakistani Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif said on X that they would also pray for Raisi.
“We stand in solidarity with the Iranian people in this hour of distress,” Modi’s post said.
3:50 p.m. EDT
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By Billy Tucker
Video editor, live show director, and production specialist for the political news team.
Video shows Iranian emergency rescue crews arriving near the Azerbaijan border, surrounded by fog. They now await orders as well as the fate of Iranian President Ebrahim Raisi after his helicopter crashed in the region, according to Iranian state media.
Emergency rescue crews on standby for Iranian President
0:48
After the helicopter of Iranian President Ebrahim Raisi had a hard landing in bad weather near the Azerbaijan border on May 19, rescue teams rushed to the area. (Video: AP)
KEY UPDATE
3:16 p.m. EDT
Iran’s first vice president would assume chief role in the event of president’s death
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By Kim Bellware
Reporter covering national breaking news and features
Iranian First Vice President Mohammad Mokhber in 2021. (Atta Kenare/AFP/Getty Images)
First Vice President Mohammad Mokhber would assume presidential powers in the event of President Ebrahim Raisi’s death, if approved by Iran’s supreme leader, according to the country’s constitution.
Mokhber, 69, is the most senior of the 12 vice presidents. Under Article 131 of the Iranian constitution, which passed in 1989, a council of leaders from the executive, legislative and judicial branches — the first vice president, the speaker of parliament and the chief justice — would be responsible for arranging a special election for a new president within 50 days.
Mokhber has close ties with Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, Iran’s supreme leader; in 2007, Khamenei chose Mokhber to be the chief executive of Setad, a multibillion-dollar financial empire controlled exclusively by Khamenei. Many of Setad’s assets derive from property seized from Iranian citizens, a 2013 Reuters investigation revealed.
Under Mokhber, Setad developed a coronavirus vaccine that was lucrative but of dubious effect; the project ended in failure.
Mokhber has been penalized by the United States and its allies. In 2010, the European Union sanctioned Mokhber and seven other Iranians for their links to a ballistic missile program. The U.S. Treasury in 2021 sanctioned Mokhber for his financial role in what it called Iran’s “systemic corruption and mismanagement.”
Six months after the U.S. penalty, Mokhber assumed office as Iran’s top vice president.
2:22 p.m. EDT
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By Maham Javaid
Staff Writer, General Assignment Desk
The Copernicus Emergency Management Service, the European Union’s rapid response recovery mapping service, has been activated to assist in the search for the Iranian president’s helicopter, an E.U. crisis management commissioner said on social media. Iran requested help, Janez Lenarcic said. The Copernicus EMS can provide geospatial data, images and other relevant information to manage rescues and disaster risks.
2:14 p.m. EDT
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By Amber Ferguson
Video broadcast on Iranian state television showed rescue teams walking in dense fog up mountainous terrain, apparently to reach the crashed helicopter carrying President Ebrahim Raisi.
Iranian President Raisi's helicopter crashes, officials say
1:18
A helicopter carrying Iranian President Ebrahim Raisi crashed on May 19, according to Iranian state TV, which broadcast coverage of rescue teams. (Video: Reuters)
1:23 p.m. EDT
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By Maham Javaid
Staff Writer, General Assignment Desk
President Biden has been briefed on the situation in Iran, White House press secretary Karine Jean-Pierre said Sunday afternoon, without offering more details.
12:48 p.m. EDT
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By Mustafa Salim
Foreign reporter focusing on Iraq
Iraqi Prime Minister Mohammed Shia al-Sudani, whose government has close ties with Tehran, directed the Interior Ministry to assist the search for Raisi’s helicopter. He also requested that the Iraqi Red Crescent Society provide aid.
12:42 p.m. EDT
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By Maham Javaid
Staff Writer, General Assignment Desk
Raisi was returning from the inauguration of a joint dam project with Azerbaijan when his helicopter made a “hard landing,” state media reported. Azerbaijani President Ilham Aliyev said on social media that he was troubled by news of the “crash-landing,” and he offered his country’s assistance.
12:27 p.m. EDT
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By Laris Karklis
Maps
The helicopter went down in Iran’s East Azerbaijan province, according to state media.
12:01 p.m. EDT
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By Maham Javaid
Staff Writer, General Assignment Desk
Difficult weather, particularly the fog at the site of the helicopter’s “hard landing,” has made the search-and-rescue operation difficult, Iranian state media reported Sunday. Heavy fog has made air rescue efforts impossible, Babak Yektaparast, spokesperson for Iran’s emergency services, told state media. A helicopter dispatched to provide assistance was forced to turn back because of the fog.
11:46 a.m. EDT
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By Susannah George
The Persian Gulf
“We have been in communication with the president’s companions, but due to the complexity of the area, communication is somewhat challenging,” Interior Minister Ahmad Vahidi said in a statement carried on state television. “We are awaiting the arrival of rescue teams at the scene of the incident and the helicopter’s landing site to provide us with information.”
11:45 a.m. EDT
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By Susannah George
The Persian Gulf
The Tasnim news agency initially reported that “a number of people with the president have managed to make telephone calls and this has raised hope that this accident may not have any casualties,” in the immediate aftermath of the incident, but it provided no further details.
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By Susannah George, Maham Javaid, Kim Bellware, Praveena Somasundaram, Kyle Melnick, Niha Masih, Kelly Kasulis Cho, Laris Karklis, Mustafa Salim, Kareem Fahim, Billy Tucker and Amber Ferguson
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