Early Monday morning, Turkish authorities released drone footage showing what appeared to be a fire in the wilderness, which they suspected to be the wreckage of the helicopter.
Rescuers located a helicopter on Monday that had been carrying Iranian President Ebrahim Raisi, the foreign minister, and other officials, which had crashed in the mountainous northwest of Iran the previous day, though « no signs of life were found, » state media said.
The site was located across a steep valley, and rescuers had not yet reached it, state media reported. At sunrise on Monday, rescuers spotted the helicopter from roughly 1.25 miles away, according to Pir Hossein Kolivand, the head of the Iranian Red Crescent Society, as reported by state media. He did not provide further details, and the officials had been missing for over 12 hours by that time.
No Signs of Raisi and Others
An Iranian official said that the situation did not look promising after search teams found the wreckage on Monday. Raisi is now feared dead but there has been no confirmation form Iran. « President Raisi’s helicopter was completely burned in the crash … unfortunately, all passengers are feared dead, » the official added.
Throughout the night, rescue teams battled blizzards and difficult terrain to reach the wreckage in East Azerbaijan province, finally arriving in the early hours of Monday.
