Iranian President Ebrahim Raisi — often seen as a potential successor to Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei— is missing after his helicopter went down in the northwest of the country on Sunday, officials said.
Iran’s Vice President Mohsen Mansouri said contact has been made with one of the helicopter passengers and one of the flight crew, although the connection had frequently been interrupted.
A report by official Iranian news agency IRNA says that it seems the incident was not serious, but does not provide an update on Raisi’s wellbeing or that of any other passengers. Iran’s Foreign Minister Hossein Amir-Abdollahian was also reportedly on board the aircraft.
Update (NYT):
The head of Iran’s Red Crescent Society, Pirhossein Kolivand, told state TV that search and rescue teams have not located the site of the helicopter crash after more than 10 hours of looking, and have made no contact with anyone on board. Any rumors to the contrary were false, he said. Kolivand said rescuers were using their best guesses to set the search area and had no confirmation of the exact location of the missing helicopter.
Update 2 (BBC)
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.
It is technically true, though. Autorotation only provides some control while going down (and the adds inertia helps, too,) but generally they won’t be getting back to an airport or something the way an airplane could.
The way it works is they pitch the rotor blades to collect head speed on the rotor and then flair just before the crash, using the rotor’s inertia to make one last bit of thrust. They can use some of the energy for control and to get someplace safe, but they’re usually not trying to go cross country.
Done correctly, in a clear area, they can survive. But a clear area is a lot easier to find for a helicopter than it is for
Usually helicopter crashes are fatal, however. Most crashes are caused by pilots though, for example pilots that elect to fly through cloudy mountains….