Iran President’s Helicopter Crash: Rescue Teams Mobilized After Turkish Drone Detects Heat Source

Iranian authorities on Monday dispatched rescue teams to the crash site of a helicopter carrying Ebrahim Raisi after a Turkish drone, Akinci, detected a heat source in the area, as reported by Iran-based news network Press TV.

According to the Turkish news agency Anadolu, an Akinci UAV identified a heat source believed to be the helicopter wreckage and shared its coordinates with Iranian authorities. In hopes of locating the crash site, Iranian forces were also sent to an area where rescue teams had detected the smell of fuel, Press TV reported. However, Tasnim News later reported that the smell of car fuel was mistaken for helicopter fuel. Additionally, Russian search and rescue planes are heading to Tabriz in northwestern Iran.

The head of the Red Crescent Society explained, “The smell of fuel was the smell of the cars themselves, and our colleagues mistook the smell of the fuel of the cars with the smell of the helicopter fuel!” The Iran Red Crescent noted that over 70 search and rescue teams were near the site of President Raeisi’s helicopter crash.

CNN reported, citing the Turkish disaster and emergency management ministry, that Iran requested assistance from Turkey in the search for the helicopter. Turkey provided a night vision search and rescue helicopter, six vehicles, and 32 mountaineer search and rescue personnel.

Nine individuals were on the helicopter that crashed on Sunday in northwest Iran, including three officials, an imam, and flight and security team members, according to Tasnim News. The IRGC-run media outlet Sepah listed those on board: Iranian President Ebrahim Raisi, Foreign Minister Hossein Amir Abdollahian, Governor of Eastern Azerbaijan province Malek Rahmati, Tabriz’s Friday prayer Imam Mohammad Ali Alehashem, a pilot, copilot, crew chief, head of security, and another bodyguard.

Following the helicopter crash involving President Raisi, several countries offered assistance for the ongoing search operations. Russia announced it would send special aircraft and 50 professional mountain rescuers to the crash site in northern Iran, according to CNN, citing Iranian state news agency IRNA.

Meanwhile, Iranians have united in prayer for President Raeisi’s well-being. Prayer vigils have been held in mosques and shrines across the country, with large gatherings in the holy city of Mashhad, President Raeisi’s birthplace, as reported by Press TV Iran.