An official investigation into the helicopter crash in May this year that killed Iran’s President Ebrahim Raisi and seven other people revealed it was caused by challenging climatic and atmospheric conditions, Iranian state TV reported on Sunday (September 1). The final report of the Supreme Board of the General Staff of the Armed Forces said that the primary cause of the chopper crash was the complex climatic conditions of the region in spring, the state TV said.
The report also cited the sudden appearance of a thick mass of dense fog rising upwards as the helicopter collided with the mountain. According to the report, there were no signs of sabotage in parts and systems.
Raisi died alongside seven others including his foreign minister Hossein Amirabdollahian in the crash in a remote mountainous area in northwestern Iran.
Earlier, it was widely speculated that Israel, Iran's arch-rival, had a role in the untimely death of President Ebrahim Raisi after a helicopter crash in the East Azerbaijan province, however, an Israeli official had told Reuters on the condition of anonymity that it was not involved in the crash.
"It wasn't us," the Israeli official told Reuters. Israel and Iran have been longstanding enemies of each other, waging a "shadow war" for decades before it broke open with a tit-for-tat drone and missile fire earlier this year, threatening an all-out war in the Middle East.
(With AP inputs)
ALSO READ | 'It wasn't us': Israeli official on country's rumoured involvement in Iran President Raisi's death
