“We can see the wreckage and the situation does not look good,” the head of lran’s Red Crescent, Pirhossein Kolivand, told state TV.

  • breakfastmtn@lemmy.ca
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    7 months ago

    BBC just reported that Iranian state media has confirmed their deaths:

    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.

  • DudeImMacGyver@sh.itjust.works
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    7 months ago

    Why does any country even transport a president by helicopter? Seems needlessly risky, I wouldn’t get in one unless it was an emergency.

    They’re cool as hell, but I still don’t trust them.

    • Ghostalmedia@lemmy.world
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      7 months ago

      The odds of being in a fatal helicopter crash are impossibly small. 0.63 out of 100,000 in the USA

      https://www.airmedandrescue.com/latest/news/us-helicopter-accident-rate-analysis

      And if you read up on what causes a lot of these fatalities, you see a lot of accidents with pilots and personal aircraft, or pilots trying doing things like high risk medical evacuations.

      The chances of dying in a helicopter air taxi are insanely small.

      • PorradaVFR@lemmy.world
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        7 months ago

        In the USA. An old helo with questionable access to parts….perhaps lower odds. In bad weather, lower still.

    • blargerer@kbin.social
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      7 months ago

      Properly maintained helicopters are safe in safe weather. It was the weather that killed them here. Street traffic presents a lot of security concerns as well.

      • Plopp@lemmy.world
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        7 months ago

        If street traffic is a concern, may I suggest you fly at a slightly higher altitude.

      • FuglyDuck@lemmy.world
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        7 months ago

        Cars become a lot safer when they close entire stretches of highways for you, the driver is a professionally trained driver, and never gets distracted or drunk while driving; and you’re driving something heavily up-armored.

        Helicopters are very complicated machines for whom total engine failure inevitably leads to a crash- a crash that generally people can’t walk away from.

        Yes it’s possible to safely land a helicopter without power- and most everywhere doing so is part of pilot training for rotary licenses. Those training landings are a) known, b) in ideal locations where it’s safe to land, c) generally in an aircraft that hasn’t lost control.

        Even then, they fuck it up they’re dead.

    • tourist@lemmy.world
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      7 months ago

      Reuters, AP, CNN, Fox News, Anthony Fantano, Hindustan times, Alex Jones all say confirmed dead

        • tourist@lemmy.world
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          7 months ago

          im a silly goose

          also pretty sure he’s still in his weekly alcohol induced coma, don’t know if he actually said anything

  • curveoftheuniverse@lemmy.world
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    7 months ago

    I’m so curious to see how Iran will change over the next decade. Given that the Supreme Leader is quite old, the person who takes Raisi’s place is going to be really influential in the Middle East at a time when the whole region is a pressure cooker.

    • quindraco@lemm.ee
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      7 months ago

      the person who takes Raisi’s place is going to be really influential

      Impossible. President of Iran is a powerless figurehead position.

      The next Supreme Leader will be relevant, though.

      • curveoftheuniverse@lemmy.world
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        7 months ago

        This is my bad; I had read somewhere that the president would be considered for the role of Supreme Leader. Upon further reading, it seems this is not the case.

        • bzz@lemmy.world
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          7 months ago

          Not the case but Raisi was considered to be the favorite along with the supreme leaders son in a close second

          • curveoftheuniverse@lemmy.world
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            7 months ago

            Yeah, that must be what I was reading and then assumed that the role of president generally improved chances of being selected.

            Reading comprehension is cool, kids!

  • GratefullyGodless@lemmy.world
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    7 months ago

    On the news, they’re blaming a lot of things like the weather, sanctions causing Iran to not be able to get adequate repair parts, possible pilot inexperience, amongst other things, but you just know it was Israel.

    Iran lobs missles at Israel, and then the Iranian president winds up dead a few weeks later? That’s classic Mossad right there.

    • FuglyDuck@lemmy.world
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      7 months ago

      It’s reasonable to imagine.

      It’s also reasonable to imagine internal power struggles, or mechanical failure.

      Don’t buy anything. We’ll probably never really know.

    • Ð Greıt Þu̇mpkin@lemm.ee
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      7 months ago

      Honestly it just sounds like the president intentionally ordered the flight to take off when the weather wouldn’t have been clear for it and the pilot would in any other circumstances with any other passengers have been able to cancel it outright.

      • GratefullyGodless@lemmy.world
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        7 months ago

        Yeah, but it was a convoy of 3 helicopters, and the one carrying the president was the only one that didn’t make it. So, why was the weather an issue for only that one chopper?

        • Plopp@lemmy.world
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          7 months ago

          Bad weather isn’t a death sentence, it just increases the chances of an accident. Nothing strange about some units making it.

    • lemmus@lemmy.world
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      7 months ago

      Are the downvotes because we don’t like the prospect of WWIII? Don’t like Iran? Think this was disinformation rather than just a joke (critiquing the precariousness of the world right now)? Or do we support state-sponsored assignations?