Iranian armed forces’ report says chopper crashed after hitting mountain
PrashantNews
Iran has ruled out any sabotage in the helicopter crash that killed its President Embrahim Raisi along with other top officials on May 19 saying the chopper caught fire after crashing into a mountain.
“The helicopter caught fire after crashing into a mountainous area. The remains of the wreckage did not bear any bullet holes or signs of similar impact,” Iran’s official news agency IRNA said quoting a report of the General Staff of the Iranian Armed Forces.
“Communications that took place before the incident between the aircraft (chopper) and the ground control contained no suspicious content,” the report said noting that the nation would be informed about any follow-up findings in due course.
The report shed more light on the Sunday crash, during which Raisi along with Foreign Minister Hossein Amir-Abdollahian, and several other top officials were “martyred” after the chopper carrying them crashed in northwestern Iran. However, media reports said the crash occurred at Uzi village in east Azerbaijan province. Raisi was second Iranian President to have died in office after Mohammad Ali Rajai was killed in a 1981 bombing.
An investigative team tasked with examining the incident was dispatched to the site of the crash on Monday, the report said.
The team had managed to “glean a remarkable part” of the information it needed to investigate the elements that could have contributed to the incident, the report said.
The helicopter carrying the senior officials crashed while flying along its pre-planned route, the report said, noting that the chopper did not deviate from the course of its flight.
According to the report, the crash site was located by Iranian unmanned aerial vehicles at 5 AM (local time) on Monday, and soon rescue teams also reached there.