- A helicopter carrying Iranian President Ebrahim Raisi crashed while he was visiting a northern region in the country Sunday, according to the Iranian state news agency IRNA. His condition is currently unknown.
- Iranian officials say dense fog is making it difficult for rescue crews to locate the downed aircraft in the remote, mountainous East Azerbaijan Province.
- The country’s Foreign Minister Hossein Amir-Abdollahian and the governor of East Azerbaijan were among a number of officials also aboard the helicopter, IRNA said.
Looks like we simultaneously posted the same thing.
What are the chances that Israel or another nation was behind it and they’re too embarrassed to admit it, similar to how they were trying to downplay Israeli strikes on them
I think one glance at the dense fog would lead most to conclude that skosh weather is the culprit, not Jooish Space Lasers?
That same chances that unfounded rumors will spread like wildfire, I would say.
Considering the amount of internal strife the Iranians are currently dealing with, and the fact that their strategy for dealing with said unrest appears to be “double the number of executions”, I would find it more likely that this was internal sabotage, if it was indeed intentional.
So pretty high then?
You believe everything they report? Israel is known to assisinating high ranking political leaders of people they’re in conflict with, happening so soon after they launched unprecedented attacks on Iranian soil, it’s not that far fetched that you need to be wearing a tin foil hat to suspect it.
I first thought that too… Foggy conditions + mountainous terrain + helicopter= CFIT. As for sabotage, I would say that it would be far more likely that any mechanical failure would be due to not being able to get parts because of sanctions. If they were using antiquated Bell or Sikorsky equipment left over from the Shah days.
I wonder whether this will turn out to be good or bad news. I guess it will depend on whether it was sabotage, foreign intervention, human error, bad weather or something different.
I am inclined to believe the terrain is extremely mountainous, and also that the area has really bad weather right now. The Iranians are reporting this. I am seeing the images online. I believe this as far as about anything can be believed.
I was a crew chief in a helicopter when the pilot decided he did not like the sudden change in the weather. He pulled the collective up and away we went. No argument from me. Visibility zero as we came up through the clouds. Up and up and up. When we broke free into the clear air I thought we were in earth orbit. LOL
Another possibility is they struck power lines. They are virtually impossible to see from the air, in bad weather, forget it. They will screw your day up. Ask me how I know. Someday I need to write the Sikorsky co. thanking them for their wire strike protection system (WSPS). They work, sometimes.
According to Washington Post, if the President is dead, the First VP (out of 12) will assume the presidency (if approved by the Supreme Leader) and a special election will need to be held within 50 days.
Considering Iran’s current political state, that could be verrrrrry interesting.
On the one hand, elections in Iran are tightly controlled by the Supreme Leader. So if the Ayatollah does not approve, you aren’t running.
On the other hand, even if the elections are a sham, just having them at this time might be like tossing gasoline on a wildfire. Iran has been executing people left and right since the start of the war in Gaza.
Eta: of course, the Ayatollah could also say “the situation is too volatile, no elections now” - but that could be even worse for him.
Al Jazeera has a horrible app, and i can’t provide a link. But one of the articles i read there said that Iran has trouble buying aircraft and parts due to various economic embargoes, and a large fraction of their aircraft date from prior to the revolution in 1979, and accidents involving aircraft are very common there.
Between that and the weather being bad, it seems likely that it’s an accident.
Not having heard from the party yet, after a couple of hours, send like a bad sign regarding their health.
Yeah. Given the lack of evidence I’d consider the possibility of this being an Israeli political assassination to be “baseless as yet but plausible”, since it’s exactly the sort of thing Israel would do. Which is a problem because lots of people aren’t going to wait for the evidence.
Given the lack of evidence, let’s engage in baseless speculation, because that’s the thing to do online.
Helicopters are dangerous. Helicopters in fog are doubly dangerous. Helicopters in fog and mountains are triply dangerous.
No need for further explanations.
I have known several people killed in helicopter crashes.
Why did Israel kill them? 
I guess they didn’t like arctic scientific research?
You’d think that reports of fog would stem the conspiracy theories; but that’s because you didn’t consider who controls the weather in conspiracy land.
It really does seem to be the weather.
Iran is reporting that they still have not reched the crash site yet due to heavy fog and the rough, mountainous terrain.
Rescuers have not reached the crash site of a helicopter carrying Iranian President Ebrahim Raisi and Foreign Minister Hossein Amir-Abdollahian, and have no update on their status, according to Iran government spokesperson Ali Bahadori Jahromi. - SOURCE (30 minutes ago as of this post)