Iran probe finds bad weather caused ex-President Raisi’s helicopter crash

Iran’s final inquiry into the helicopter crash that killed former President Ebrahim Raisi in May has found it was caused by bad weather, says the body investigating the case.

The helicopter carrying 63-year-old Raisi and his entourage came down on a fog-shrouded mountainside in northern Iran, killing the president and seven others, including his Foreign Minister Hossein Amirabdollahian, leading to snap elections.

The main cause of the helicopter crash was the “complex climatic and atmospheric conditions of the region in the spring”, said the final report of the Supreme Board of the General Staff of the Armed Forces, state broadcaster IRIB reported on Sunday.

The report added that “the sudden emergence of a thick mass of dense and rising fog” caused the helicopter’s collision into the mountain.

According to the report, there were no signs of sabotage in parts and systems.

In May, Iran’s army had similarly said it had found no evidence of criminal activity in the crash.

Last month, the Fars news agency had cited bad weather as the main cause of the May 19 crash as well as the helicopter’s inability to ascend with two extra passengers against security protocols.

But the communications centre of the Armed Forces General Staff, responsible for publishing information on the crash investigation, said the Fars report was “completely false”, state media reported.

Raisi – a hardline politician – was elected president in 2021.

He had long been regarded as the natural successor to Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, the highest authority in Iran.