Helicopter carrying Iran’s President Raisi crashes
It’s official – Raisi’s plane has crashed:
It has been approximately 10 hours since authorities lost contact with President Ebrahim Raisi’s helicopter in the country’s East Azerbaijan Province, where dense fog hindered search efforts during the day. Iran’s semi-official Tasnim news agency warned that extreme cold would only hinder the search further as night fell.
The overnight low temperature in the nearest city of Tabriz will be in the low 50s on Sunday. It’s difficult to obtain precise weather data from the remote mountains where the crash took place, but temperatures there will dip closer to freezing, according to CNN meteorologists.
Iranian officials say they have located the exact crash site and are sending teams there. Earlier, authorities managed to make contact with two people who had been aboard the aircraft, according to a government spokesperson.
So if this report is correct, there are survivors.
UPDATE: It is now being reported that there are no survivors.
Best comment I read so far: The mountain came to Mohammed.
Ohmigerd, it’s almost freezing? Bring in the kiddies, end the search!!
😛
I thought it got cold in the desert at night, so they should be able to handle low temps? 😀
One suspects that the actual attitude is, “He’s dead ?? Awwww. Dang!!”
}}} So if this report is correct, there are survivors.
True, but if one had been their president, one suspects that they’d suggest, at least, that it might be him.
The Mossad might as well claim credit for it, as Israel will be blamed anyway.
Fog, mountains, inshallah maintenance. A bad combination.
What was the presidential party doing out there? East Azerbaijan… without looking at the map, it sounds like it’s in the somewhat obscure northwestern corner of Iran. Or maybe the northeast corner of the northwest corner. At any rate, rather curious, but not the Mossad’s style to go hunting heads of state, I would think.
“Inshallah maintenance” made me chuckle. So true.
Holy crud!
I hope that this doesn’t sent Iran’s government into chaos.
Granted, I’d like it if the Iranian govt. acted more like the US government, but- a govt. of Iran, that turns into chaos, in my opinion, would be worse.
Man.
@TR:I hope that this doesn’t sent Iran’s government into chaos.
The President of Iran is not the head of state and is not responsible for policy. The President is second to the Supreme Leader, cannot be elected without the Supreme Leader’s permission, and can be dismissed by the Supreme Leader at any time.
The Supreme Leader is Ali Khameini, and has been since 1989. I’m pretty sure he doesn’t take helicopter rides.
@Niketas Choniates,
Thanks for the information on Iran’s govt..
I’m not a fan of Iran’s govt.’s policies, but I’m glad that this event won’t lead Iran into a time of chaos + disorder.
That’s good information to know.
Cheers,
TR
“Fog, mountains, inshallah maintenance. A bad combination.”
– Sgt. Mom
Always is. Inshallah navigation can be fatal as well. Particularly in foggy mountains.
Inshallah tends to be a hard taskmaster and has a lot to do with the poverty of Muslim countries not blessed with oil reserves.
}}} a lot to do with the poverty of Muslim countries not blessed with oil reserves.
Their poverty has a lot more to do with an ass-backwards attitude towards education and science, along with a supremely repressive ideological creed.
Malaysia is largely Muslim, but only gets 2% of its GDP from oil… It’s ranked about 38th in world median per capita GDP, out of 161 countries. Median income in the 8k range.
Islamic Poverty isn’t about oil, it’s about excessive submission to “submission”.
@Obloodyhell:Malaysia is largely Muslim
Asterisk: their 30% Chinese and Indian minority is substantially overrepresented in their economic productivity. There’s a lot of ways Malaysia is different from Middle Eastern Muslim countries but that’s a big one.
inshallah maintenance…
From news reports I gather that the helicopter that crashed was a Bell that was some 50 years old. It is difficult to obtain parts for a 50 year old helicopter, especially when the US blocks their export to Iran- as we should. It would take some ingenious mechanical skills to keep such old machines in the air.
I am reminded of the hoops that Cuban auto mechanics have to jump through to keep those old US cars running- very few of those cars are younger than 1959. And I think I am performing miracles to keep a 2007 car running. 🙂
(I am not a fan of the Cuban regime. Two stats to show: Pinochet did a better job in reducing Infant Mortality than Castro did. Since 1961, milk production has more than quadrupled in Latin America, but increased only 10-20% in the socialist paradise of Cuba.)
The foggy weather would seem to be the cuplrit. But why would ANYONE fly a helicopter in a mountainous area when it’s foggy? It’s not “inshallah maintenance,” but “inshallah piloting skills.” Or maybe the passengers were so sure that Allah would pilot them safely. I imagine that a pilot would defer to such capos, and take off if they ordered him to do so, even though he considered it unduly risky to do so.
Why were they out in the middle of BFNowhere?
Celebrating the building of a new dam… according to ABC Australia.
Seems the weather gave them a case of the “suddenlies.” Oh well…
Quibble alert:
First line of this post: “It’s official – Raisi’s plane has crashed:”
Gringo,
If it was a Bell JetRanger, those things are ubiquitous. Not hard to find parts for them. If not genuine Bell parts, then cheap Chinese knockoffs.
They don’t make flying carpets like they used to.
Hmmm. Speculation on the BBC that Raisi was expected to succeed the Ayatollah, who is old and ailing, so there may be effects from this death going forward. But some other radical will rise to the occasion.
Raisi has died in a helicopter crash;
so what, who cares
It will change nothing in Iran nor in the Middle East.
Iran will find some other guy to take his place.
Don’t be surprised if Anthony Blinken or Jake Sullivan attend his funeral and bring with them a few billion $$$$ to hand over to the Iranians.
His Karma finally caught up to him. Saw a “last” pic of him looking worried—w/o even having to see his eyes, as they were looking out a window at the fog surrounding him.
Too bad it wasn’t a plane filled w/ Iran’s Top 100…
I am sure some idiot white kids in Brooklyn think that Israel did it.
Brooklyn, check the comments at XeroHedge. It’s a three way race among Israel, the CIA and an internal rival. They’ve already lapped accident.
The simplest explanation is that they were flying in mountainous terrain in thick fog and hit something. As J.J. said, “inshallah navigation.” The pilot says it’s dangerous. The leader says, “Inshallah, we will arrive safely.” They didn’t.
Butcher of Tehran
https://nypost.com/2024/05/19/world-news/no-sign-of-life-as-crews-reach-mangled-helicopter-that-was-carrying-iranian-president-ebrahim-raisi/
I understand many Iranians are happy he’s dead. Also this can have a destabilizing effect. Iran isn’t do well as is, and it’s a theocracy claiming Allah’s support. That didn’t work out well for the Butcher.
Inshallah tends to be a hard taskmaster and has a lot to do with the poverty of Muslim countries not blessed with oil reserves.
Neville Shute’a novel “Round the bend” is about running a small airline in Muslim countries.
“Their poverty has a lot more to do with an ass-backwards attitude towards education and science, along with a supremely repressive ideological creed.”
– O’Bloody
And that ass-backwards attitude has something to do with the fatalistic philosophy of Allah willing or inshallah. Repressive? Yes. The tenets of Islam are meant to utterly control the adherents. A pretty toxic brew of politics and religion.
As Niketas Choniates points out, the Chinese and Indian influence in Malaysia is a big difference in their economic performance. Countries like Saudi Arabia, the UAE, Qatar, and Burundi are examples of oil rich Muslim countries due to their large oil reserves per capita.
Turkey and Egypt haven’t done badly, though neither are among the world’s affluent countries (Turkey is close). Indonesia has also had satisfactory performance (fuel exports therefrom accounting for about 5% of nominal GDP). The rest of the Muslim world does tend to underperform absent a natural resource bonanza (and, in the case of Iraq, even with one).
Peter Zeihan’s take makes sense. He states upfront that he doesn’t know. However…
___________________________________________
The simplest explanation would be that the president’s plane simply had an unfortunate accident at a very inconvenient time. Most of Iran’s aircraft are Franken-zombie constructs, a product of successful Western sanctions limiting Iran’s ability to get new technology and parts. Pre-1979 Western equipment is kept alive with a mix of indigenous knock-off components and whatever schlock can get in from Russia and China. Russian and Chinese aircraft and parts are often second-or-third-hand purchases from intermediaries looking to avoid sanctions…
Bad weather, bad fog, and bad parts make for good chances for an accident. We might learn that more nefarious things were afoot, but there’s certainly not a lot of reason now to jump to that conclusion.
–Peter Zeihan
“Inshallah tends to be a hard taskmaster”
For anyone who didn’t catch it, Inshallah essentially Translates to “If Allah wills it”.