Iran’s President Ebrahim Raisi and Foreign Minister Hossein Amirabdollahian, along with seven others, tragically passed away in a helicopter crash in northern Iran’s East Azerbaijan province.
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An aviation analyst named Kyle Bailey mentioned to Al Jazeera that the lack of communication from the helicopter pilot or another crew member indicates a serious controllability issue. Bailey explained that in such situations, the pilot’s priority is to keep the helicopter flying, which might explain the absence of communication.
According to the analyst, it seems that the helicopter’s tail rotor was most likely sliced off, possibly due to the main rotor blade hitting it. This could have been caused by aerodynamic forces during the pilot’s landing maneuver or a technical issue. Another possibility mentioned was a failure of the tail rotor.
“If we see that spiral motion where the helicopters kind of rotating 360 degrees, clockwise or counterclockwise, that could indicate that the tail rotor failed, and … would be out of control”.
Bailey mentioned that adverse weather conditions and mountainous terrain could have played a role in the fatal crash. Ayatollah Ali Khamenei posted a tribute to President Ebrahim Raisi after his death in a helicopter crash. Raisi’s remains are currently being transported to Tabriz, but it’s still unknown when and where he will be buried.
