On May 19, a helicopter with Raisi and other high-ranking Iranian officials made a landing near the Iranian city of Jolfa, which shares a border with Azerbaijan. According to the government sources the helicopter crashed while crossing a mountainous and forested area. 

Rescuer workers found the wreckage of the helicopter on May 20. There were no signs that the passengers were alive at the crash site and Iran has officially confirmed the deaths of President Ebrahim Raisi and Foreign Minister Hossein Amir-Abdollahian in a helicopter crash. The causes of the helicopter crash are still unknown.

According to the head of the Iranian Red Crescent Society, Pir Hossein Kolivand, the helicopter was seen at dawn from a distance of about 2 km. The Iranian State News agency, Mehr,  reported that all passengers and crew members died. 

Afterwards, Iran’s official news agency, IRNA, reported that the search operation was completed and the bodies of President Raisi and the other victims were sent to the city of Tabriz which is located in the northwest of the country. 

What could have happened to the helicopter carrying the Iranian president remains unclear. Karim Sadjadpour, a senior fellow at the “Carnegie Endowment for International Peace,” told Time that in “Iran’s conspiracy-based political culture, few people would believe that Raisi’s death was accidental.”

According to Sky News, Middle East correspondent Alistair Bunkall, the death of Raisi may create certain problems in the Iranian government. He noted that in Iran, the president is not the head of state, but is the second in the state hierarchy after the “Supreme Leader” Ayatollah Ali Khamenei. According to the “American Institute for the Study of War,” the death of the Iranian president will have serious consequences for the succession of the leader. For now Iran’s first Vice President Mohammad Mokhber will take the duties of the president who died until the presidential elections take place.