The late Iranian president's chief of staff, Ebrahim Raisi, has revealed new details about the hours after the presidential helicopter disappeared.
Gholam Hossein Esmaili was on one of three helicopters returning from an opening ceremony for a dam on Iran's border with Azerbaijan, he said in an interview with state television IRINN, and was reported by Iran's semi-official news agency, Mehr News, on Tuesday.
The helicopter carrying nine people encountered inclement weather on the way back and disappeared, sparking an hours-long night search in the mountainous region.
On Sunday's return flight, three helicopters took off around 1:00 pm local time on Sunday “while weather conditions in the area were normal,” Esmaili said, quoted by Mehr News.
He said weather conditions in the mountainous region of Varzeghan, where the accident occurred, were perfect at the start of the flight.
“After 45 minutes of flight, the pilot of President Raisi's helicopter, who was in charge of the convoy, ordered other helicopters to increase altitude to avoid a nearby cloud,” Esmaili said.
“However, the president's helicopter, which was flying between the other two, suddenly disappeared,” Esmaili added, quoted by Mher News.
About 30 seconds after flying over the clouds, Esmaili said his pilot noticed that the helicopter in the middle had disappeared. The pilot turned around to look for the president's helicopter, he said.
Esmaili said several attempts were made to contact the president's helicopter through radio devices before the helicopter continued its flight and landed at a nearby copper mine. Esmail said the pilot of the helicopter he was flying in was unable to decrease altitude due to clouds.
Iranian Foreign Minister Hossein Amir Abdollahian and the head of the president's protection unit, who were on the same helicopter as Raisi, did not respond to repeated calls after the helicopter disappeared, Esmaili said.
“The pilots of the other two helicopters contacted Captain Mostafavi, who was in charge of the president's helicopter,” he said.
A person alive for three hours: The Friday Prayer Imam of Tabriz, Ayatollah Mohammad Ali Alehashem, was able to answer the pilot's phone and said that the helicopter had crashed in a valley and was in critical condition, Esmaili added.
Esmaili said that after finding the location of the crashed helicopter, it was clear from the condition of the bodies of Raisi, Abdollahian and others that “they had died instantly.”
Alehashem was alive for at least three hours after the crash and was able to speak with authorities several times before he died, Esmaili said.
