Iranian President Ebrahim Raisi, 63, can be seen calmly sitting inside his helicopter a short time before it went down in a remote mountainous region Sunday afternoon, May 19.
Haunting images released by Iranian state media show Raisi pensively staring forward in his seat as an unidentified state official sitting across from him stares out the window of the ill-fated chopper.
Those traveling with Raisi included Foreign Minister Hossein Amirabdollahian, Friday prayer Imam Seyyed Mohammad-Ali Al-Hashem and other high-ranking state officials.
After the crash on Sunday near Iran’s border with Azerbaijan, Iranian Vice President for Executive Affairs Mohsen Mansouri told the semi-official FARS news agency that officials have been in contact with two people who were on the same helicopter as Raisi and that the crash was “not severe.”
However, on Monday morning, May 20, it was announced that President Ebrahim Raisi was killed in the crash.
His foreign minister and other passengers were found dead after the rescuers discovered the helicopter crash site early Monday morning.
State news agency, Mehr, reported “all passengers of the helicopter carrying the Iranian president and foreign minister were martyred.”
A senior Iranian official also told Reuters that Raisi was killed in the wreck after state media reported Monday morning there was “no sign of life” at the crash site.
“President Raisi, the foreign minister and all the passengers in the helicopter were killed in the crash,” the senior Iranian official told Reuters.
