Iran Chief of Staff recounts last moments before Raisi's helicopter crashed

Iranian Government's Chief of Staff Major General Mohammad Bagheri has given an account of the last moments before the Huey chopper carrying his boss Ebrahim Raisi crashed on Monday morning.

The President's helicopter crashed against a mountaintop in the Varzaqan region on May 19 while returning from a ceremony to inaugurate a dam on Iran's border with the Azerbaijan Republic.

According to the state media, the President was travelling in a convoy of three choppers, all carrying his accompanying delegation of senior officials, including Iranian Foreign Minister Hossein Amir-Abdollahian and the Friday Prayer Imam of Tabriz, among other officials.

In an interview with local television channel IRIB news last evening, General Mohammad revealed he was part of the entourage accompanying the head of state. He was on the third chopper that flew right behind the president's helicopter.

"After our noon prayers, we departed towards the direction of Tabriz. The weather was clear, there were no weather conditions to be worried about. After half an hour of being in the air, before reaching the Sungun copper mine, there was a small patch of clouds above a cliff," he said.

"This cloud was at the same height as our flight's height. The now-martyred helicopter pilot, who was also the commander of the fleet, told the rest of the pilots to ascend above the clouds."

He said after they ascended above the clouds for approximately 30 seconds, their pilot suddenly realised that the main helicopter carrying the president was missing.

"After ascending above the clouds, we didn't see the main helicopter. The ascension itself didn't feel difficult."

Though they experienced a little turbulence, he said nothing out of the ordinary happened inside their chopper or within the area they could visualise.

He added that no weather forecasts were cautioning against bad weather.

"Shortly after, we were able to see beneath us and there were no clouds anymore and we had reached the area of the copper mine. We realised, however, that our pilot was making a U-turn suddenly so I asked him, why? He said that one of our helicopters is missing."

A helicopter carrying Iran's President Ebrahim Raisi takes off, near the Iran-Azerbaijan border, on May 19, 2024. (Photo: Ali Hamed Haghdoust/IRNA/West Asia News Agency/Reuters)

At that point, the pilot had lost radio contact with the pilot carrying the president and so they assumed that they had made an emergency landing.

The General then asked the pilot when he last made contact with the pilot carrying the president.

"A minute and 30 seconds ago, when the pilot told us to ascend above the clouds," the pilot told him.

"Our pilot circled around the area a couple of times, but the area with the cloud patch was also invisible to us and it was too risky to enter that area. We failed several times to make any radio contact. We were forced to make a landing after 30 seconds at the Sungun copper mine to investigate."

While at it, they had made several phone calls to the passengers, including with the President's bodyguard, the governor of East-Azerbaijan and the Friday Imam of Tabriz but efforts to reach them were unsuccessful.

"After some time, someone picked up the phone. It was Ayatollah Hashem, the Friday Imam of Tabriz. He told us that he was not feeling well. He didn't tell us anything special. I asked him what exactly had happened. He told us that he didn't know what had happened, and when asked about his whereabouts, he said that he didn't know," he narrated.

"He only described his surroundings and couldn't see anyone else. He was alone."

What followed were rapid search and rescue efforts by multiple teams.

"We formed a team to go and search for them. We requested for immediate emergency help as well," he said.

The general has since ordered a probe into the crash. The President will be buried tomorrow.