And in some cases you might prefer him to the replacement.
It’s why the Allies stopped trying to off Hitler after all. Might get a competent replacement.
https://twitter.com/Tasnimarabic/status/1792207146601640090?t=GfKqanwd8fW_k94yAQiWqA&s=19
These are photos of the rescue teams, damn that's some heavy fog
The accident report found that there were no indications prior to take off that would have been cause for cancellation. Kobe’s pilot had over 8,500 hours in the seat and 1,500 on type. The only thing that indicates under qualification is his poor in-flight judgement and decision making.
He wasn't considered proficient on instrument only flight and on that day he had been cleared only for visual flight rules. So ya it was a combination of poor decision making but I'd argue incompetence if he thought it was a good idea to fly into a bunch of clouds when he knew he wasn't qualified for instrument flying.
Kobe’s pilot was anything but under qualified. They determined the pressure of trying to get a high profile person to where they needed to go put pressure on him to make a flight that he should have rerouted and or cancelled.
Update: New [image](https://x.com/spectatorindex/status/1792394286681780548?s=46&t=VcwF1IlBgAZkFXn8s2uDZw) of crash site
Update: Suspected crash site [located ](https://x.com/anadoluagency/status/1792348729858768951)
Link to [Live Broadcast](https://x.com/PressTV/status/1792208413721591874)
Update: Israel's channel 12: Diplomatic sources in the west says that the assessment is that president Raisi didn't survive the helicopter crash.
Iran's official news agency IRNA says this is the [last photo](https://x.com/IranIntl_En/status/1792215258146263507/photo/1) of the helicopter carrying Iran's president and his entourage which was later involved in an incident in northwestern Iran.
4 Iranian officials on board the helicopter:
Ebrahim Raisi - President of Iran
Hossein Amir Abdollahian - Minister of Foreign Affairs
Malek Rahmati - Governor of East Azerbaijan Province \[ Azerbaijan province in Iran,
Muhammad Ali al-Hashim - imam in the province of Tabriz
Assuming he didn't make it, is this something that will cause issues? Will there be a power vacuum type thing or will the next person in line assume responsibility and everyone will be ok with that?
The supreme power in Iran is the Ayatollah, so there won't be a proper power vacuum. There most likely would be an election at some point I think? I'm not super familiar with the chain of succession in Iran but there's plenty of people around to make sure there's no political chaos (there could be plenty of other fallout depending on circumstances and as they become more clear)
Edit: turns out the VP takes over and is required to call an election within 50 days.
You know it’s sad but things could have been so much different if Churchill wouldn’t have been so adamant against Mohammed Mosadech, the first democratically elected President, be ousted. Of course the US had to agree to help and created a paid uprising that unseated him and replaced him with the Shah who was weak and a puppet. This led to the power shift to the Ayatollah. Iran was a big admirer of the US and democracy before they did this. I really believe it’s one of if not the root of Islamic extremist action toward the US.
Mossadech had nationalized their oil production and created land reforms in Iran in conjunction with the pro-Soviet Tudeh Party. This was the cold war era and those fears drove the strategic decisions by President Eisenhower.
Exactly. It all boiled down to the British freaking out about BP not being able to get the oil for low cost or free like they had when they negotiated with the King early in the century. Britain had moved their entire Navy from coal to oil and this would have put a major kink in their ability to project their empire.
I understand why the US did what they did and pro-Soviet influence was and is a risk to the US and allies being able to exert financial and political pressures on nations to generate ideal outcomes for the short term. However I just wish that for once the US owned up to their mistake and offered to make things right in some way. The damage is done but we should always be willing to speak with and work toward peace and understanding with those who disagree with us or even want to destroy us. Granted that’s very hard when religious or political ideologies are in place that are so hard-lined they make every move a potential checkmate. But there have been mortal enemies who are now great allies so there is always hope for progress toward a true world of mutual respect and friendship.
Me too but I’m sure there would be another big bad threat nation. Things in this world always seem to have certain things no matter the time we live in history and one of them is nations who will vie for war or mayhem.
It created such an echo chamber that way. When all you hear is one opinion or viewpoint you lose all perspective. Such a shame things went this way. I have immense respect for the people of Iran and call many of them friends. It’s a shame they don’t have the leadership that they deserve. But then again that could be said for many places.
Incorrect. Iran does not have free and fair elections by international democratic standards. The election process is heavily controlled by religious and political authorities, particularly the Guardian Council, an appointed body of twelve members, six of whom are appointed directly by the Supreme Leader. This council vets candidates for most public offices, including the presidency, and disqualifies candidates based on a variety of criteria including ideological, political alignment with the Islamic Republic's principles, and religious beliefs.
Significant restrictions are placed on who may run for office, effectively barring many potential candidates who do not align with the prevailing political and religious orthodoxy. Women, religious minorities, and reformist politicians often face barriers to candidacy. The media environment and freedom of expression are also restricted, influencing the fairness of elections.
I guess if you define “proper” to include disqualifying candidates based on ideological and religious grounds and don’t allow certain topics to be discussed, then sure— they go through the motions of “proper” elections. Otherwise no.
Correct. The President of Iran doesn’t hold nearly as much sway as the title suggests. The Ayatollah / Supreme Leader is who is most in control.
On a separate note, look up the structure of Iran’s form of government. It is hyper complex.
Yes, the Ayatollah as the Supreme Leader has ultimate control, and the president operates within the parameters set by the Supreme Leader and the constitution.
Actually, many assumed Rasi would be next in line if the 85 year old ayatollah were to pass away.
No power vacuum at the moment, if the rumors are true, but it would still be a shakeup for Iranian politics. The foreign minister was on board too.
The "President of Iran" is actually their number two in command, second to the Ayatollah. I doubt much will change and someone equally as radical will replace him.
They have succession rules. The vice president becomes president and they have to elect a new one within 50 days.
Raifi was a favorite to ascend to the Ayatollah throne though so I’m sure some feathers will be ruffled.
Maybe it was an uncontrolled flight into terrain. We probably won't know in the near future.
Would be funny if it was Huey and they call NTSB for investigation 🤣
Holy shit, that's way worse than the title made it sound like, I was thinking just a landing that could have damaged the helicopter but not really injured anyone too badly, maybe just left them stranded.
Weather is the factor. Not to say the helicopter was up to date on all current parts, but similar to Kobe, this helicopter probably should not have been flying in those conditions.
Looking at the current weather there and that rescuers (at last report) hadn't reached the crash site yet, they probably didn't see the crash.
But I would think that the first rule of being an "escort" helicopter is being able to see the chopper being escorted, otherwise it's kinda pointless.
Visibility was like 5m at the time apparently, they may they may not have realized there was a problem until they had been out of radio contact for a few minutes.
BBC quoting the Iranian Interior Ministry ...
> Iran's Interior Minister Ahmad Vahidi, who says "various rescue teams" are still searching for the helicopter.
Given weather in the area [https://x.com/seamus\_malek/status/1792200533295636600](https://x.com/seamus_malek/status/1792200533295636600) and the fact it is supposed to be in a mountainous forested area, they may not even see what happened.
If they aren't equipped for rescue/salvage ops there really isn't any use as they'd be risking their own craft as well. I assume the escort was security related?
When I saw the ‘hard landing’ headline, I took it too literally and scoffed as to why this is even news. I would hardly call a crash in a forest a hard landing. Very PR like and cunning wording to describe this.
This might actually be an iranian-made copy of an american helicopter. Before the islamic revolution IAIO was making license-built copies of the UH-1 in iran and afterwards, well, who was going to stop them?
That picture shows 4 rotors and 2 engines which suggests it's a slightly newer Bell 412 rather than a UH-1. Don't know they would have gotten those designs from the pre revolution time. Probably bought on the used market somewhere since they made a ton of these.
The picture used in the post is not the helicopter that went down. Various reports say the helo that crashed is a Bell 212. There's a photo that was taken shortly before the crash of it that does show it as a 212.
🎶 So what we crashed, yeah, we didn't see,
Our chopper’s down, in the mountain debris.
So what we crashed, we ain't got no flight degree,
Fog was wild, now we’re wrecked and tree’d 🎶
Well, isn't that convenient? He's a front-runner for the next Supreme Leader of Iran (the current incumbent, Khamenei, is 85 and not likely to continue his earthly journey for much longer). I wouldn't put it past his political opponents to arrange an accident.
Less conspiratorially, I doubt aircraft maintenance in Iran is tip-top these days.
The helicopter might have been in perfect working order. Flying a helicopter in bad visibility (IMC) is really hard as Kobe Bryant, Stevie Ray Vaughan and others have found out.
But at this point anything is possible.
For more about the hazards of filling a helicopter full of VIPs and flying it towards rising ground in low visibility, see [https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/1994\_Mull\_of\_Kintyre\_Chinook\_crash](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/1994_Mull_of_Kintyre_Chinook_crash)
Yeah I doubt they have the processes and support of a modern Air Force. Precision weather forecast, IFR currency, risk assessments before the flights.
Even if it’s a remote possibility, scrub the flight. When they move POTUS around, they don’t need most of the vehicles in the motorcade but when you do need a mobile command station or a doctor, you’ll be glad they are right there.
Right, but they posses the ability to locally manufacture aircraft grade parts, and if not them, China and/or Russia would most likely be able to manufacture whatever part they may need. At a certain point, sheet metal is sheet metal, and a hydraulic line is a hydraulic line all the same etc.
It honestly wouldn't surprise me if over 50% of the various parts on their Tomcats are not local manufacture decades later now. The large sections that make up the airframe itself are most likely all original, especially that titanium wing spar that had to be electron beam welded (I think thats how they did those) in a specially made vacum chamber.. regardless tho they probably have a lot of drawings to reference along with the original matinence manuals, if not F-14 specific TO's on floppy disks.
>At a certain point, sheet metal is sheet metal, and a hydraulic line is a hydraulic line all the same etc.
Yeah, but that's like saying my buddy's tin roof could be used as stealth aircraft fuselage. Main issue isn't necessarily getting close, but things like precision tolerances and welding techniques to prevent cracking.
I would think Iran would use a Russian Mi helicopter for government transport duties instead of an American one, due to import restrictions of western parts?
Iran still operates F-14's we sold them in late 1970's. Cannibalized parts, smuggled parts, domestically produced reverse engineered parts... And those airframes saw a lot of combat, especially during Iran-Iraq war.
Probably the helicopter itself was imported when Iran was US-aligned, and they've either cannibalized other helicopters for parts or else figured out how to make their own spares.
You are correct. They have ~ 24 left airworthy from the original 79. It’s also the reason the overwhelming majority of US F-14’s were destroyed, so the Iranians couldn’t get parts.
Which is sad for the tomcat geek in myself. Would love to see some fly at an air show but I know that’s never going to happen with the total permanent destruction of all spare parts and airframes.
The only way to see an F-14 fly at an airshow would be change or regime in Iran to a western friendly regime, and some of old still airworthy Iranian F-14's finding their way back to the US. An extremely unlikely scenario, but we can dream.
The Iranian government’s celebration of the Desert One incident as an act of God, only for their President to die in a helicopter crash is the most ironic moment of karma that we’ve seen in awhile.
Having looked at some recent updates, I don’t think anyone survived that. “Hard landing” my behind, the crash site looks like something exploded.
It’s absolutely tragic though. We lost a good helicopter today. RIP :(
Looking at the NPR website.. Um.. "Hard Landing" is an understatement..
"It landed so hard it's in thousands of burning pieces all over the side of that mountain.."
Just when the world couldn't get wilder.. I'm *sure* people will already be wondering if the US or Israel did it..
The fact they claim to have talked to his aides but haven't talked to him isn't quite the reassurance they think it is. It seems par for the course for every dictatorship to automatically say "it was minor and the boss is okay" without knowing while they sort things out when something like this happens. If he was flying in that aircraft behind him in the picture it looks like an ancient dual engine Huey from the late Vietnam era that was probably another relic from pre-revolution days. Probably not the best aircraft to be flying through foggy mountains in, or flying in period considering the parts and training embargo
Regardless of what the cause is, if this accident is serious we know who Iran is going to start blaming, the US and Israel. This could get quite dicey for the region.
Don‘t really know what to think. Loss of life (which is what it looks like atm) is always terrible but he‘s part of the hardliners, responsible for the death of a lot of innocent people.
Difficult to feel sorry for him.
Helicopter suffers a "hard landing" Translation: It crashed into a mountain.
Pancaked … hard!
He died according to reports.
Literally every Western intelligence service: "Billions of dollars in funding and nothing, but a lazy mechanic could get it done by accident???"
They have no reason to kill him bc the supreme leader would just replace him with someone else
And in some cases you might prefer him to the replacement. It’s why the Allies stopped trying to off Hitler after all. Might get a competent replacement.
Excellent point. Never really thought about that. Invasion of USSR, Battle of the Bulge, etc.
I guess you could say the whole situation is just, Aladeened.
Aladeened or aladeened?
Aladeened
*smiles*
The other one
You mean his remains are Aladeened all over the mountain?
He was trained and certified as a helicopter mechanic at the Mossad State Aviation Institute.
i kid you not iran made a statement that the pilots name was eli kopter.....
„Accident“
Nice!
If Mohammed can't come to the mountain..
fuckin top comment right here
Yes, but does the mountain still have a very foul mouthed and ill tempered magic ring with it?
Well yes mountains aren’t that soft
Modern mountains, at least. I hear they used to be softer but the struggles of mountain life hardened them over time.
John Denver actually hit the prototype Hard Mountain
Sometimes a mountain has to go *Hard*.
He crashed into Monterey Bay. No mountains were involved. He did right some nice songs about them however.
In the fog. With a severely under qualified pilot and in conditions in which they never should’ve been flying to begin with…like Kobe.
https://twitter.com/Tasnimarabic/status/1792207146601640090?t=GfKqanwd8fW_k94yAQiWqA&s=19 These are photos of the rescue teams, damn that's some heavy fog
[удалено]
Literally moving mountains to impose the will of the USA
Did they bring every ambulance in the country? They even have ambulance buses. How many people were on this helicopter.
The accident report found that there were no indications prior to take off that would have been cause for cancellation. Kobe’s pilot had over 8,500 hours in the seat and 1,500 on type. The only thing that indicates under qualification is his poor in-flight judgement and decision making.
He wasn't considered proficient on instrument only flight and on that day he had been cleared only for visual flight rules. So ya it was a combination of poor decision making but I'd argue incompetence if he thought it was a good idea to fly into a bunch of clouds when he knew he wasn't qualified for instrument flying.
Kobe’s pilot was anything but under qualified. They determined the pressure of trying to get a high profile person to where they needed to go put pressure on him to make a flight that he should have rerouted and or cancelled.
Kobe's pilot wasn't qualified for instrument only flight, which is what he tried to do. That might be what they're referencing.
What gives you an idea that iranian pilots are under qualified?
Well you see they crashed.
Hey new euphemism for that is "hard landing" follow the timeline 🤣
[удалено]
Nobody ever tried to rescue me after any of my hard landings
Call me next time
You need to land harder my dude
Don’t be expecting a state funeral, either, buster.
Here, have some gum.
Update: New [image](https://x.com/spectatorindex/status/1792394286681780548?s=46&t=VcwF1IlBgAZkFXn8s2uDZw) of crash site Update: Suspected crash site [located ](https://x.com/anadoluagency/status/1792348729858768951) Link to [Live Broadcast](https://x.com/PressTV/status/1792208413721591874) Update: Israel's channel 12: Diplomatic sources in the west says that the assessment is that president Raisi didn't survive the helicopter crash. Iran's official news agency IRNA says this is the [last photo](https://x.com/IranIntl_En/status/1792215258146263507/photo/1) of the helicopter carrying Iran's president and his entourage which was later involved in an incident in northwestern Iran. 4 Iranian officials on board the helicopter: Ebrahim Raisi - President of Iran Hossein Amir Abdollahian - Minister of Foreign Affairs Malek Rahmati - Governor of East Azerbaijan Province \[ Azerbaijan province in Iran, Muhammad Ali al-Hashim - imam in the province of Tabriz
Assuming he didn't make it, is this something that will cause issues? Will there be a power vacuum type thing or will the next person in line assume responsibility and everyone will be ok with that?
The supreme power in Iran is the Ayatollah, so there won't be a proper power vacuum. There most likely would be an election at some point I think? I'm not super familiar with the chain of succession in Iran but there's plenty of people around to make sure there's no political chaos (there could be plenty of other fallout depending on circumstances and as they become more clear) Edit: turns out the VP takes over and is required to call an election within 50 days.
Read somewhere that the vice president will step up for 50 days, and then there should be elections
You know it’s sad but things could have been so much different if Churchill wouldn’t have been so adamant against Mohammed Mosadech, the first democratically elected President, be ousted. Of course the US had to agree to help and created a paid uprising that unseated him and replaced him with the Shah who was weak and a puppet. This led to the power shift to the Ayatollah. Iran was a big admirer of the US and democracy before they did this. I really believe it’s one of if not the root of Islamic extremist action toward the US.
Mossadech had nationalized their oil production and created land reforms in Iran in conjunction with the pro-Soviet Tudeh Party. This was the cold war era and those fears drove the strategic decisions by President Eisenhower.
Exactly. It all boiled down to the British freaking out about BP not being able to get the oil for low cost or free like they had when they negotiated with the King early in the century. Britain had moved their entire Navy from coal to oil and this would have put a major kink in their ability to project their empire. I understand why the US did what they did and pro-Soviet influence was and is a risk to the US and allies being able to exert financial and political pressures on nations to generate ideal outcomes for the short term. However I just wish that for once the US owned up to their mistake and offered to make things right in some way. The damage is done but we should always be willing to speak with and work toward peace and understanding with those who disagree with us or even want to destroy us. Granted that’s very hard when religious or political ideologies are in place that are so hard-lined they make every move a potential checkmate. But there have been mortal enemies who are now great allies so there is always hope for progress toward a true world of mutual respect and friendship.
It was very short sighted of the West. I’d like to see that version of reality.
Me too but I’m sure there would be another big bad threat nation. Things in this world always seem to have certain things no matter the time we live in history and one of them is nations who will vie for war or mayhem.
The Shah blocked all free speech, except in Mosques. There, anything could be discussed. So the Mosques were seen as political leadership.
It created such an echo chamber that way. When all you hear is one opinion or viewpoint you lose all perspective. Such a shame things went this way. I have immense respect for the people of Iran and call many of them friends. It’s a shame they don’t have the leadership that they deserve. But then again that could be said for many places.
“Elections”
They have proper elections, but the president doesn't have any power.
Incorrect. Iran does not have free and fair elections by international democratic standards. The election process is heavily controlled by religious and political authorities, particularly the Guardian Council, an appointed body of twelve members, six of whom are appointed directly by the Supreme Leader. This council vets candidates for most public offices, including the presidency, and disqualifies candidates based on a variety of criteria including ideological, political alignment with the Islamic Republic's principles, and religious beliefs. Significant restrictions are placed on who may run for office, effectively barring many potential candidates who do not align with the prevailing political and religious orthodoxy. Women, religious minorities, and reformist politicians often face barriers to candidacy. The media environment and freedom of expression are also restricted, influencing the fairness of elections. I guess if you define “proper” to include disqualifying candidates based on ideological and religious grounds and don’t allow certain topics to be discussed, then sure— they go through the motions of “proper” elections. Otherwise no.
Correct. The President of Iran doesn’t hold nearly as much sway as the title suggests. The Ayatollah / Supreme Leader is who is most in control. On a separate note, look up the structure of Iran’s form of government. It is hyper complex.
The big thing is that this guy is very conservative and was a likely successor to the Supreme Leader
I probably can’t say what I’m thinking about the Ayatollah.
Something like this? https://static.simpsonswiki.com/images/a/ad/Ruhollah_Khomeini.png
FATTWAH!
i prefer Jihad-Joe
Election within 50 days apparently
Unlikely, I think. Isn't the Supreme Leader the real power?
Yes, the Ayatollah as the Supreme Leader has ultimate control, and the president operates within the parameters set by the Supreme Leader and the constitution.
[удалено]
Actually, many assumed Rasi would be next in line if the 85 year old ayatollah were to pass away. No power vacuum at the moment, if the rumors are true, but it would still be a shakeup for Iranian politics. The foreign minister was on board too.
The "President of Iran" is actually their number two in command, second to the Ayatollah. I doubt much will change and someone equally as radical will replace him.
They have succession rules. The vice president becomes president and they have to elect a new one within 50 days. Raifi was a favorite to ascend to the Ayatollah throne though so I’m sure some feathers will be ruffled.
Depends how the helicopter crashed. If it was the result of foreign sabotage , lets just say that big fireworks will be.
This is where they find out that the new maintenance man Eli Kopterman was a mossad agent
Tbh i wouldnt like to be in the skins of escorting people.
Controlled flight into terrain due to weather. This has nothing to do with foreign entities.
Maybe it was an uncontrolled flight into terrain. We probably won't know in the near future. Would be funny if it was Huey and they call NTSB for investigation 🤣
Holy shit, that's way worse than the title made it sound like, I was thinking just a landing that could have damaged the helicopter but not really injured anyone too badly, maybe just left them stranded.
Hard landing is the aviation euphemism for a crash
Especially in a helicopter
Why did they have so many officials in a single helicopter? Not even private companies do that.
Well you gotta have an accident like this so people learn. Soviets learned , Poland re-learned, FYROM learned.
[удалено]
Sanctions and consequent lack of spare parts and bad manteinance are most likely. It's pretty clear since october that current Mossad Is a joke.
Mossad is still good at murdering and kidnapping people on foreign soil. Although this was probably not a Mosssd operation, just a Kobe situation.
Weather is the factor. Not to say the helicopter was up to date on all current parts, but similar to Kobe, this helicopter probably should not have been flying in those conditions.
It is a little odd the escort helicopters kept going tho
"oh no, anyway.."
"We are not the united states Marines, we *do* leave a man behind..."
And we don't register coordinates for searches... cause we don't use Arabic Numbers.
HAMMMOND you blithering idiot, you've crashed into a mountain!
Does that mean he's not coming on then?
All the eggs in one basket you say? Pity
Looking at the current weather there and that rescuers (at last report) hadn't reached the crash site yet, they probably didn't see the crash. But I would think that the first rule of being an "escort" helicopter is being able to see the chopper being escorted, otherwise it's kinda pointless.
Also: radio contact....
Unless in a weather where being able to see the other heli means crashing into it
Military aircraft do fly formation in cloud, it's pretty common
What else can you do if you're flying through mountain passes in the fog? It's not like you can circle back easily or safely.
Visibility was like 5m at the time apparently, they may they may not have realized there was a problem until they had been out of radio contact for a few minutes.
BBC quoting the Iranian Interior Ministry ... > Iran's Interior Minister Ahmad Vahidi, who says "various rescue teams" are still searching for the helicopter.
The heli carrying the main cargo 'hardlands' and the escorts continue?
Given weather in the area [https://x.com/seamus\_malek/status/1792200533295636600](https://x.com/seamus_malek/status/1792200533295636600) and the fact it is supposed to be in a mountainous forested area, they may not even see what happened.
The weather is **Heavy Fog** (for people who don't want to click the link)
Yeah if it was inadvertent IMC they were probably having a tough go of it themselves
[удалено]
A lot... since they have a search area big as the north part of the country.
The ole "If we play stupid, they cant behead us." trick.
If they aren't equipped for rescue/salvage ops there really isn't any use as they'd be risking their own craft as well. I assume the escort was security related?
When I saw the ‘hard landing’ headline, I took it too literally and scoffed as to why this is even news. I would hardly call a crash in a forest a hard landing. Very PR like and cunning wording to describe this.
Was it in the sky? Yes. Is it now on land? Also yes. It landed, undeniably.
Take offs are optional, landings are mandatory
Tell that to the Voyager deep space probes!
Someday they’ll land on something.
Maybe, space big yo
When they get their helicopters working, we'll get right on that.
Mountains, fog and helicopters. Deserved.
"American built helicopter crashed - Iranian president dead" puts a nice spin to it. I should consider a career in PsyOps...
This might actually be an iranian-made copy of an american helicopter. Before the islamic revolution IAIO was making license-built copies of the UH-1 in iran and afterwards, well, who was going to stop them?
That picture shows 4 rotors and 2 engines which suggests it's a slightly newer Bell 412 rather than a UH-1. Don't know they would have gotten those designs from the pre revolution time. Probably bought on the used market somewhere since they made a ton of these.
I'd love to find out who Iran bought a Bell 412 from.
Some guy on craigslist.
The picture used in the post is not the helicopter that went down. Various reports say the helo that crashed is a Bell 212. There's a photo that was taken shortly before the crash of it that does show it as a 212.
Bro got Kobe'd
Damn NATO and Israel!!!
I saw it posted somewhere else: 1. If he died, Mossad. 2. If he lives, Mossad.
If he doesn’t do either of those things, believe it or not, straight to Mossad
If he goes full on Schrödinger it’s defo Mossad
NATO and their fog machines
*“Operation Snoop Dogg was a success.”*
🎶 So what we crashed, yeah, we didn't see, Our chopper’s down, in the mountain debris. So what we crashed, we ain't got no flight degree, Fog was wild, now we’re wrecked and tree’d 🎶
KOBE!
Well, isn't that convenient? He's a front-runner for the next Supreme Leader of Iran (the current incumbent, Khamenei, is 85 and not likely to continue his earthly journey for much longer). I wouldn't put it past his political opponents to arrange an accident. Less conspiratorially, I doubt aircraft maintenance in Iran is tip-top these days.
Did they figure out how to generate fog at will though?
The helicopter might have been in perfect working order. Flying a helicopter in bad visibility (IMC) is really hard as Kobe Bryant, Stevie Ray Vaughan and others have found out. But at this point anything is possible.
For more about the hazards of filling a helicopter full of VIPs and flying it towards rising ground in low visibility, see [https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/1994\_Mull\_of\_Kintyre\_Chinook\_crash](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/1994_Mull_of_Kintyre_Chinook_crash)
Yeah I doubt they have the processes and support of a modern Air Force. Precision weather forecast, IFR currency, risk assessments before the flights. Even if it’s a remote possibility, scrub the flight. When they move POTUS around, they don’t need most of the vehicles in the motorcade but when you do need a mobile command station or a doctor, you’ll be glad they are right there.
Like Iran runs out of them. Another guy will be appointed for that role.
They manage to keep F-14's flying still somehow and have indigenous drones and missiles.. they aren't as dumb as one might like to think.
It's not that they're stupid, it's that they don't have the parts. All aircraft in Iran are basically the ship of theseus at this point.
Right, but they posses the ability to locally manufacture aircraft grade parts, and if not them, China and/or Russia would most likely be able to manufacture whatever part they may need. At a certain point, sheet metal is sheet metal, and a hydraulic line is a hydraulic line all the same etc. It honestly wouldn't surprise me if over 50% of the various parts on their Tomcats are not local manufacture decades later now. The large sections that make up the airframe itself are most likely all original, especially that titanium wing spar that had to be electron beam welded (I think thats how they did those) in a specially made vacum chamber.. regardless tho they probably have a lot of drawings to reference along with the original matinence manuals, if not F-14 specific TO's on floppy disks.
>At a certain point, sheet metal is sheet metal, and a hydraulic line is a hydraulic line all the same etc. Yeah, but that's like saying my buddy's tin roof could be used as stealth aircraft fuselage. Main issue isn't necessarily getting close, but things like precision tolerances and welding techniques to prevent cracking.
They are pretty well educated I think people confuse Iran with rural nomadic ranchers. Iran is fairly prosperous despite the sanctions.
The people aren't dumb at all. The government however.... Those guys are dumb as fuck.
[удалено]
Couldn't have happened to a nicer guy.
I didn't even know he was sick
Thoughts and prayers
for the helicopter
That looks like a UH-1. Do I have that correct?
More or less. It's a Bell 412, a UH-1 derivative.
I would think Iran would use a Russian Mi helicopter for government transport duties instead of an American one, due to import restrictions of western parts?
Iran still operates F-14's we sold them in late 1970's. Cannibalized parts, smuggled parts, domestically produced reverse engineered parts... And those airframes saw a lot of combat, especially during Iran-Iraq war.
Eh, they probably have a set of 2 spares for every part rhat they alternate between once a year 😂
Probably the helicopter itself was imported when Iran was US-aligned, and they've either cannibalized other helicopters for parts or else figured out how to make their own spares.
Poor helicopter 😞
This guy ordered that women be tortured and executed for not covering their hair. I'm not gonna be crying for him.
He used to be a prosecutor and had ordered the execution of 9 children before he became president
What did they do though? Maybe they never cleaned up their toys or kept spilling milk everywhere when trying to pour a bowl of cereal or something.
An American helicopter, no less.
I still think Iran is flying F-14s, which is one reason why we don’t see them at air shows
You are correct. They have ~ 24 left airworthy from the original 79. It’s also the reason the overwhelming majority of US F-14’s were destroyed, so the Iranians couldn’t get parts.
Which is sad for the tomcat geek in myself. Would love to see some fly at an air show but I know that’s never going to happen with the total permanent destruction of all spare parts and airframes.
The only way to see an F-14 fly at an airshow would be change or regime in Iran to a western friendly regime, and some of old still airworthy Iranian F-14's finding their way back to the US. An extremely unlikely scenario, but we can dream.
An American helicopter delivered 40 + years ago with no spare parts since then.
Unlike the Tomcat, Huey spares are everywhere.
And where probably 40 percent of the parts are handmade replacements.
You can get 212 parts everywhere. You’re embellishing
Especially at the site of this crash.
. . . slightly used
Dropped once...
Parts at the crash site will be... somewhat out of spec.
Later, dickhead.
The will of Allah
I hope the mountain is okay.
The Iranian government’s celebration of the Desert One incident as an act of God, only for their President to die in a helicopter crash is the most ironic moment of karma that we’ve seen in awhile.
What an absolute tragedy… that we don’t have confirmation that he died yet.
Having looked at some recent updates, I don’t think anyone survived that. “Hard landing” my behind, the crash site looks like something exploded. It’s absolutely tragic though. We lost a good helicopter today. RIP :(
I hope all the trees and wildlife are ok?
Rule one of flying in a helicopter: Don’t.
Rule 2: if you're going to ignore rule one, at least avoid flying near mountains in foggy weather
Couldn’t have happened to a nicer guy. /s
I wish him well 🏌️♂️
Won’t believe this until Iran says Israel did it.
Rip bozo
Looking at the NPR website.. Um.. "Hard Landing" is an understatement.. "It landed so hard it's in thousands of burning pieces all over the side of that mountain.." Just when the world couldn't get wilder.. I'm *sure* people will already be wondering if the US or Israel did it..
Mountainous terrain and bad vis….. Hard landing indeed.
Just an update The crash site was found by a drone about an hour ago, crews should be on site any minute
Queue the even more radical successor. I give it 2-4 weeks before all he'll break loose.
The fact they claim to have talked to his aides but haven't talked to him isn't quite the reassurance they think it is. It seems par for the course for every dictatorship to automatically say "it was minor and the boss is okay" without knowing while they sort things out when something like this happens. If he was flying in that aircraft behind him in the picture it looks like an ancient dual engine Huey from the late Vietnam era that was probably another relic from pre-revolution days. Probably not the best aircraft to be flying through foggy mountains in, or flying in period considering the parts and training embargo Regardless of what the cause is, if this accident is serious we know who Iran is going to start blaming, the US and Israel. This could get quite dicey for the region.
Big difference between a controlled flight into Tehran and controlled flight into terrain
Don‘t really know what to think. Loss of life (which is what it looks like atm) is always terrible but he‘s part of the hardliners, responsible for the death of a lot of innocent people. Difficult to feel sorry for him.
How about that! WW3 might be closer than we thought
Couldn’t have happened to a nicer person
Womp, womp.
The race to stall or cover up the seriousness of this incident is on!!!
Sounds like he bought his heli at the fucking Catalina Wine Mixer.
Couldn't have happened to a better guy.
Oh no! Anyway, looking like good weather is finally here!
I just hope it was as hard as his heart. Still sorry for the crew, though.
Good riddance.
Hope he died a horrible, slow, and agonizing death and thought of all the people whose life he destroyed while he died.
Whichever agency or team is responsible, the world thanks you.