Iranian President Raisi feared dead as helicopter wreckage found | Reuters
"We can see the wreckage and the situation does not look good," the head of lran's Red Crescent, Pirhossein Kolivand, told state TV.
BBC just reported that Iranian state media has confirmed their deaths:
President Ebrahim Raisi, Foreign Minister Hossein Amir-Abdollahian and several others are confirmed to have been killed in Sunday's helicopter crash in north-western Iran, state TV says.
Why does any country even transport a president by helicopter? Seems needlessly risky, I wouldn't get in one unless it was an emergency.
They're cool as hell, but I still don't trust them.
The odds of being in a fatal helicopter crash are impossibly small. 0.63 out of 100,000 in the USA
https://www.airmedandrescue.com/latest/news/us-helicopter-accident-rate-analysis
And if you read up on what causes a lot of these fatalities, you see a lot of accidents with pilots and personal aircraft, or pilots trying doing things like high risk medical evacuations.
The chances of dying in a helicopter air taxi are insanely small.
They're probably much safer when you don't buy them from Boeing
Properly maintained helicopters are safe in safe weather. It was the weather that killed them here. Street traffic presents a lot of security concerns as well.
If street traffic is a concern, may I suggest you fly at a slightly higher altitude.
nothing to see here :)
Cars become a lot safer when they close entire stretches of highways for you, the driver is a professionally trained driver, and never gets distracted or drunk while driving; and you’re driving something heavily up-armored.
Helicopters are very complicated machines for whom total engine failure inevitably leads to a crash- a crash that generally people can’t walk away from.
Yes it’s possible to safely land a helicopter without power- and most everywhere doing so is part of pilot training for rotary licenses. Those training landings are a) known, b) in ideal locations where it’s safe to land, c) generally in an aircraft that hasn’t lost control.
Even then, they fuck it up they’re dead.
I’m so curious to see how Iran will change over the next decade. Given that the Supreme Leader is quite old, the person who takes Raisi’s place is going to be really influential in the Middle East at a time when the whole region is a pressure cooker.
the person who takes Raisi’s place is going to be really influential
Impossible. President of Iran is a powerless figurehead position.
The next Supreme Leader will be relevant, though.
What a lovely day
On the news, they're blaming a lot of things like the weather, sanctions causing Iran to not be able to get adequate repair parts, possible pilot inexperience, amongst other things, but you just know it was Israel.
Iran lobs missles at Israel, and then the Iranian president winds up dead a few weeks later? That's classic Mossad right there.
It’s reasonable to imagine.
It’s also reasonable to imagine internal power struggles, or mechanical failure.
Don’t buy anything. We’ll probably never really know.
Honestly it just sounds like the president intentionally ordered the flight to take off when the weather wouldn't have been clear for it and the pilot would in any other circumstances with any other passengers have been able to cancel it outright.
I can’t wish badly on anyone so I’ll just say this.
That poor helicopter didn’t deserve that.
I'll wish badly on them for you then.
Good riddance!
It was a classic. Should have been in a museum.