Reiteration of Previous Claims in First Official Government Report: Iranian Drone Found Raisi's Helicopter; No Bullet Marks Observed

On Friday, June 4, the Communications Center of the General Staff of the Armed Forces of the Islamic Republic of Iran published the first official report regarding the crash of the helicopter carrying Ebrahim Raisi and several other government officials. According to some claims made in this report, the helicopter 'did not deviate from the designated flight path' and approximately one and a half minutes before the crash, 'the pilot of the affected helicopter communicated with two other helicopters.' The report also emphasized that 'no signs of bullet impacts or similar incidents were observed in the remaining parts of the helicopter' and that the helicopter 'caught fire after colliding with altitude.' Furthermore, the report claimed that the 'exact location of the accident' was identified early on Tuesday (5 AM) with the help of Iranian drones, and 'ground forces conducted search operations at that location.' The General Staff of the Armed Forces had previously issued an official statement on June 2, claiming that Turkey played no role in locating Ebrahim Raisi's helicopter and that the Akıncı drone 'failed to accurately announce the crash site due to a lack of cloud detection and control equipment and ultimately returned to Turkey.' Despite the presence of a Turkish media team at the crash site and detailed visual reports on how the helicopter crashed, this statement claimed that the discovery of the 'exact location of the helicopter crash' was carried out by 'ground rescue forces and Iranian military drones.' The newspaper 'Ham-Mihan' published in Tehran on Thursday harshly criticized the 'incorrect and ambiguous' claims of several official Iranian authorities regarding the details of this incident, stating that the remarks of two officials from the Islamic Republic's presidential office about what happened to Mohammad Ali Al-Hashem, the Imam of Tabriz, after the helicopter crash were 'not reasonable or acceptable.' This newspaper referred to the statements of Gholamhossein Esmaeili, head of Ebrahim Raisi's office, and Mohsen Mansouri, Raisi's executive deputy, who in interviews claimed that they contacted Mohammad Ali Al-Hashem, who was on Raisi's helicopter, via his phone and the pilot three or four times for several hours after the crash. 'Ham-Mihan' questioned how the Imam of Tabriz could have 'access to his mobile phone after the helicopter crashed into the mountain and was 'shattered,' let alone that the pilot's phone was accessible to him and he answered? The likelihood that the pilot's mobile phone would fall into the hands of the Imam of Tabriz 'and be intact and have a signal is virtually zero.' The newspaper criticized government officials for 'attempting to overlook some truths,' stating that one of these truths is that according to meteorological site information and the words of a member of the Islamic Consultative Assembly, 'the weather was not suitable for helicopter flight, and an orange alert had apparently been issued in this regard.' 'Ham-Mihan' further raised recent ambiguities in the interviews of government officials, asking whether 'the President's helicopter was operating at the appropriate capacity or was overloaded? Is there a requirement for this type of helicopter carrying officials to fly over the main road or not? If yes, why did it take the mountainous route? Is this specific type of helicopter suitable for operation in mountainous and elevated environments? If the pilot of the President's helicopter was the commander of the trip and gave the order to gain altitude, why could he not do so himself?' Ebrahim Raisi, the head of the government, and Hossein Amir-Abdollahian, the Minister of Foreign Affairs of the Islamic Republic, along with their entourage, were killed in an air accident in East Azerbaijan on Sunday evening. The announcement regarding the disappearance of the helicopter carrying Ebrahim Raisi and several other officials was accompanied by multiple contradictions in the statements of officials from the outset. Media experts residing in Iran say that with the 'chaos of contradictory news' from domestic media about the helicopter crash that led to the death of Ebrahim Raisi and his entourage, 'the authority and credibility of our domestic media has once again been called into question against foreign media.' Pejman Mousavi, a journalist, emphasized that 'the audience has the right to distrust domestic media,' posting images of false news from government news agencies, stating that 'when official news agencies lie so brazenly about the head of government and high-ranking officials, why should they not lie about everything?' Meanwhile, motorcyclists who were among the first to reach the wreckage of the helicopter carrying Ebrahim Raisi and his companions reported that they filmed the crash site and the bodies, but officials 'for security reasons' prevented the release of the videos. According to them, the helicopter carrying the President of the Islamic Republic of Iran and his companions was 'completely blown up,' 'everything was burned,' and filmed evidence is available. One of these motorcyclists, who introduced himself as 'a member of the popular forces,' described his initial observations from the wreckage, stating that 'Al-Hashem was down,' Ebrahim Raisi and Hossein Amir-Abdollahian 'were together,' and 'the governor was lower than them'; and 'there is footage of it.'