Turkish Minister discloses "serious problem" in Iranian president's plane crash

Shafaq News/ On Monday, the Turkish Minister of Transport disclosed that a malfunctioning or absent signaling system might have caused Iranian President Ebrahim Raisi's helicopter crash.

Transport Minister Abdulkadir Uraloglu said, "We found out that the signaling system in the helicopter was probably malfunctioning or it was not equipped with one."

He added, "If it were otherwise, these signals would have reached us, but they did not," without specifying whether he referred to the transponder or the helicopter's distress beacon.

Turkiye deployed a Turkish "Akinci" drone to the crash site on Sunday evening, which helped locate the wreckage of the Bell 212 helicopter in northwestern Iran. The helicopter went off radar on Sunday afternoon while flying over a steep, forested area in difficult weather conditions with rain and heavy fog.

The Iranian President, Foreign Minister, and another seven were found dead after an hours-long search in the northwest of the country.

Raisi was returning from the inauguration ceremony of a joint border dam with Azerbaijan, where he had met Azerbaijani President Ilham Aliyev earlier on Sunday.

Iran declared a national mourning period for President Raisi, lasting five days, earlier on Monday.

Black banners have been flown on top of the Imam Reza Shrine in Mashhad and the dome of Fatima Masumeh Shrine in Qom, the two holiest cities in Iran.