President’s helicopter in ‘hard landing’ inside forest
A helicopter carrying Iranian President Ebrahim Raisi suffered a “hard landing” yesterday, Iranian state television reported.
Some commentators began urging the public to pray for Raisi and the others on board as rescue crews sped through a misty, rural forest where his helicopter was believed to be.
Raisi had been travelling in Iran’s East Azerbaijan province. State TV said the incident happened near Jolfa, a city on the border with the nation of Azerbaijan, some 600km northwest of the Iranian capital, Tehran. With him were Foreign Minister Hossein Amir-Abdollahian, the governor of East Azerbaijan province and other officials, the state-run IRNA news agency reported.
One local government official used the word “crash” to describe the incident, but he acknowledged to an Iranian newspaper that he had yet to reach the site himself. Neither IRNA nor state TV offered any information on Raisi’s condition.
“The esteemed president and company were on their way back aboard some helicopters and one of the helicopters was forced to make a hard landing due to the bad weather and fog,” Interior Minister Ahmad Vahidi said on state TV. “Various rescue teams are on their way to the region but because of the poor weather and fogginess it might take time for them to reach the helicopter.
“The region is a bit [rugged] and it’s difficult to make contact. We are waiting for rescue teams to reach the landing site and give us more information.”
State TV said rescuers had been hampered by poor weather with been heavy rain, fog and some wind reported. IRNA called the area a “forest” and the region is known to be mountainous as well.
State TV aired images of SUVs racing through a wooded area.