TEHRAN, Iran (AP) — The helicopter carrying Iran’s late president Ebrahim Raisi It caught fire shortly after crashing into a mountain and there was no sign it had been attacked, state media reported, citing military crash investigators.
The statement from the Armed Forces General Staff in charge of investigating the crash was read out on state television late Thursday. The initial statement on the crash did not place blame but said more details would come after further investigation.
The crash on Sunday killed Raisi, the country’s foreign minister and six other people.
According to the General Staff statement, communications between the control tower and the helicopter crew before the crash did not contain anything suspicious. It said the last communication from the crashed helicopter was between it and two helicopters that accompanied it about 90 seconds before the crash.
There was no sign that anything had been shot at the helicopter and the flight path did not change, the statement said.
The aging Bell helicopter crashed on Sunday in a foggy, remote mountainous area in northwestern Iran. The crash site was discovered Monday morning and all eight on board were dead.
Raisi was buried on Thursday in a tomb at the Imam Reza shrine in Mashhad.
