Uncertainty, as Iranian President, Raisi’s helicopter crashes

A helicopter carrying Iran’s President, Ebrahim Raisi and the foreign minister crashed while travelling back from East Azerbaijan yesterday.
Iranian President Ebrahim Raisi has yet to be found at press time, despite conflicting reports that the location where his helicopter went down had been found.
But those reports were quickly dismissed by the Iranian Red Crescent and the world continues watching Iranian emergency crews searching for Raisi in a remote area near Jolfa in Iran’s East Azerbaijan province where his helicopter went down, while the rest of the convoy continued.
As of yesterday, information was slowly emerging on the incident, according to Al Jazeera.
Reports of a helicopter in the president’s convoy crashing first circulated on social media and were quickly picked up by local media.
An initial report by the state-linked Mehr news website said Raisi had opted to travel to Tabriz by car due to the foggy weather conditions, and that he was safe.
The news was subsequently taken down after state television confirmed that the missing helicopter was carrying Raisi and the other officials. State television said the helicopter suffered a “hard landing”.
Travelling with Ebrahim Raisi were Iran’s Foreign Minister Hossein Amir-Abdollahian, Iran’s East Azerbaijan Province Governor Malek Rahmati, and Ayatollah Mohammad Ali Ale-Hashem, the representative of Iran’s Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei to East Azerbaijan, according to state media.
(Al Jazeera)