The president of Iran Ebrahim Raisi died on Sunday, 19, in a helicopter crash near the border of Azerbaijan, in the northwest of the country.
In addition to Raisi, the aircraft was carrying the Minister of Foreign Affairs, Hossein Amirabdollahian, as well as two crew members – there were no survivors.
The president was returning from an event in Azerbaijan, when he faced heavy fog in a mountainous region. The wreckage of the helicopter was found hours later by rescue teams.
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The helicopter in which Ebrahim Raisi flies would be a Bell 212, a civilian twin-engine variant of the old Bell UH-1, widely used in the Vietnam War.
Initially, images used in articles shortly after the helicopter’s disappearance suggested that Raise was aboard a Russian-made Mil Mi-8, but Iranian news agency IRNA released photos of the aircraft taking off hours before the event, showing the US model Bell 212.
Some outlets also linked the aircraft to model 412, registration number 6-9221, also from the Iranian Air Force, but the helicopter is quite different from the image published by state media.
The United States has maintained an embargo on Iran since the Islamic revolution in 1979, but some aircraft are smuggled into the Middle Eastern country.