Iranian media attributes cause of Ebrahim Raisi’s death to poor weather conditions

Iranian state media has confirmed that the chopper crash in which Iran’s late President Ebrahim Raisi was killed was primarily caused by weather conditions that included thick fog, citing the final investigation report of the incident.

“The main reason for the helicopter crash was complicated weather conditions in the region,” the final report concluded, according to Iran’s state TV.

A preliminary report by Iran’s military had said in May that no evidence of foul play or an attack had been found during the investigation.

President Raisi, 63, along with his entourage, died on May 19 after his helicopter went down in the country’s mountainous northwest while returning from a dam inauguration on the border with Azerbaijan.

Raisi was laid to rest in his hometown of Mashhad.

Among the people killed in the incident were Foreign Min­ister Hossein Amir-Abdollahian, Malik Rahmati, governor of Iran’s East Azerbaijan Province, Ayatollah Mohammad Ali Al-Hashem, representative of the Iranian supreme leader to East Azerbaijan, Sardar Seyed Mehdi Mousavi, head of Raisi’s guard team, the helicopter’s pilot Colonel Seyed Taher Mostafavi, co-pilot Colonel Mohsen Daryanush, and flight technician Major Behrouz Ghadimi.