DUBAI, May 19 (Reuters) - A helicopter carrying Iranian President Ebrahim Raisi and his foreign minister crashed on Sunday as it was crossing mountain terrain in heavy fog, an Iranian official told Reuters, and rescuers were struggling to reach the site of the incident.

The official said the lives of Raisi and Foreign Minister Hossein Amirabdollahian were “at risk following the helicopter crash”, which happened on the way back from a visit to the border with Azerbaijan in Iran’s northwest.

    • kbotc@lemmy.worldEnglish
      6·
      6 months ago

      Iran’s president is dead and the King of Saudi Arabia is likely on his way out, but on the other hand, neither of these two wielded actual power.

  • deranger@sh.itjust.worksEnglish
    14·
    6 months ago

    I hope there’s a blancoliro or Mentour Pilot analysis of this aviation mishap. I’m guessing spatial disorientation or controlled flight into terrain.

    • Makhno@lemmy.worldEnglish
      25·
      6 months ago

      Almost as if you shouldn’t fly a helicopter through foggy mountains…¯\_(ツ)_/¯

    • HappycamperNZ@lemmy.worldEnglish
      3·
      6 months ago

      Throw in an admiral cloudburg article and its perfect.

      I’m going to call it CFIT simply because its most likely and I doubt Iran will investigate well enough to find anything else.

      Unless its a murder and the pilots dumped the body and flew somewhere else.

  • Blackmist@feddit.ukEnglish
    157·
    6 months ago

    I guess it doesn’t matter if Israel is behind this or not, because they’re going to get the blame in any case…

    • CanadaPlus@lemmy.sdf.orgEnglish
      18·
      6 months ago

      Hopefully not. Helicopters legitimately do just crash a lot in foggy conditions, and rugged terrain doesn’t help.

      If it was Israel, they did a very good job picking a moment Raisi was somewhat likely to die anyway.

      • glimse@lemmy.worldEnglish
        61·
        6 months ago

        The Israeli government isn’t exactly known for their subtly… UNLESS… They’ve deliberately been shit at hiding it before so this time everyone would assume it couldn’t have been them…Netanyahu is a stable genius playing 4D chess…!

      • Eggyhead@kbin.run
        3·
        6 months ago

        Not just rugged, but mountain terrain. Having to go high means thinner air and less lift. Coupled with the fog, I think they might have put themselves in quite a precarious situation.

        • Echo Dot@feddit.ukEnglish
          2·
          6 months ago

          Seems unnecessarily dangerous to run in fog. I know a geologist that works for a mining company in parts of the world like this and they say that anything other than pristine weather basically grounds a helicopter flight. It probably isn’t a risk most of the time but why risk it?

        • CanadaPlus@lemmy.sdf.orgEnglish
          1·
          6 months ago

          Huh, TIL there’s a distinction. Where is mountainous considered to begin?

          I feel like if there was a pamphlet people got upon becoming rich and famous, “don’t helicopter through foggy mountains” would have to be on it.

          • Eggyhead@kbin.run
            2·
            6 months ago

            Well, I suppose you could call a mountain rugged, but I wouldn’t say rugged is exclusively mountainous. I wanted to emphasize mountainous because I had an ESL student who was a pilot in training, and he had told me all about the dangers of mountains specifically.

      • ArxCyberwolf@lemmy.caEnglish
        41·
        6 months ago

        Their helicopters are also generally old and with scarce replacement parts due to sanctions. Mechanical failure could easily be the case if not the terrain.

    • nahuse@sh.itjust.worksEnglish
      16·
      6 months ago

      It’s the same story. I believe the first official Iranian statement had language like “involved in a hard landing” without anything else.

      They have since turned to asking for prayers for their safe recovery, and apparently asked the EU for satellite imaging to help with search and rescue. [this is from a New York Times timeline that I recently read.]

    • espentan@lemmy.worldEnglish
      13·
      6 months ago

      I’m not familiar with the story you’re referring to, but typically a hard landing doesn’t necessitate a search/rescue team. Unless it’s a very hard “landing” into the side of a mountain, for example.

      • Blackmist@feddit.ukEnglish
        4·
        6 months ago

        The fact that they haven’t found them yet, indicates a very hard landing indeed.

        • SupraMario@lemmy.worldEnglish
          1·
          6 months ago

          At what point does it become just a crash.

          Maybe this will help the Iranian people overthrow their oppressive theocratic government.

          • Blackmist@feddit.ukEnglish
            1·
            6 months ago

            Doubt it, even if Khamenei was on board. Like everywhere else, there are just too many powerful people with too much to lose.

  • Dr. Moose@lemmy.worldEnglish
    41·
    6 months ago

    Are we allowed to celebrate someones death in this lemmy community? If so color me celebrated!