Raisi's helicopter found after Turkish UAV detects the location

The Iranian Red Crescent Society has announced that they had found the location of the wreckage of President Ebrahim Raisi's helicopter after it was detected by a Turkish Akinci unmanned aerial vehicle (UAV).

Early Monday, the head of the Iranian Red Crescent, Pir Hossein Kolivand, told that two kilometres are left to reach the area where the wreckage is located.

Iran's official news agency IRNA also confirmed the finding.

"The location of the President's helicopter has been found. Search and rescue teams approached the place where the accident occurred," the agency said.

Following search and rescue works at the location, Iranian President Ebrahim Raisi, the country's foreign minister and others have been found dead, the Iranian state television said.

Source of heat identified by Turkish UAV

Turkish Bayraktar Akinci unmanned aerial vehicle (UAV) identified a source of heat early Monday suspected to be the wreckage of a helicopter carrying Iranian President Ebrahim Raisi and shared its coordinates with Iranian authorities, the Anadolu news agency has reported.

After the helicopter carrying Raisi crashed, the Turkish Ministry of National Defence assigned an Akinci UAV and a Cougar type helicopter with night vision capabilities to participate in search activities.

Türkiye has also sent a night vision search and rescue helicopter and 32 rescuers following a request from Iran, as announced by the country's Disaster Management Agency (AFAD) on Sunday.

"Iran has requested a night vision search and rescue helicopter from Türkiye" through the Turkish Foreign Ministry, the agency said on X.

"32 search and rescue mountaineers from the Van and Erzurum branches of the Disaster and Emergency Management Authority (AFAD) and 6 vehicles are en route to the area," it added.

Also, "15 mountaineer search and rescue personnel from Ankara, Diyarbakir, and Konya are on standby," the agency said and added it is closely monitoring the situation for further developments.

Helicopter crash

President Raisi attended the inauguration ceremony for a dam on the Iran-Azerbaijan border on Sunday by helicopter.

Iranian state television reported that the accident occurred when Raisi's helicopter made a hard landing while returning from the region.

Iranian Foreign Affairs Minister Hossein Amir-Abdollahian, Malik Rahmeti, the governor of East Azerbaijan Province, and Imam Ayatollah Ali Hashim of Tabriz province were also on board the helicopter.

Search and rescue teams are reporting that work continues with difficulty due to adverse weather conditions.