Iranian President Ebrahim Raisi, Foreign Minister Hossein Amir-Abdollahian, and several other Iranian officials perished when their Islamic Republic of Iran Air Force Bell-212 helicopter crashed into a mountain on May 19, 2024. The group was returning from the inauguration of the Qiz-Qalasi Dam, a joint hydro-electric project with Azerbaijan.
A day after the accident, Mohammad-Javad Zarif, Iran’s former foreign minister, accused Washington of responsibility for the crash due to U.S. sanctioning the Iran’s aviation sector, making it difficult for the regime to buy new helicopters or spare parts for existing models. As state media hyped Zarif’s comments, they downplayed or ignored domestic contributions to this accident.
While sanctions have prohibited the Iranian regime from buying advanced American and European helicopters, they have not been an impediment to the purchase of Russian or Chinese helicopters. Despite Tehran’s ability to purchase new Russian-made helicopters, both Iranian government organizations and the country’s armed forces prefer American helicopters, even aging and second-hand ones, to newer Russian models.
Sanctions did not force the Islamic Republic of Iran Air Force helicopter pilots to try to fly to Tabriz in conditions no professional pilot in the United States or Europe would accept.
The Islamic Republic of Iran Air Force, responsible for maintaining and operating aircraft and helicopters for transportation of regime officials, has long used U.S. and Canadian-built Bell-212 and 412 helicopters. In 1992, the Iranian Ministry of Post and Telegraph procured seven of these helicopters from Canada. The Iran Helicopter Support and Renewal Industries has overhauled and upgraded them to keep them in operation. Former President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad often flew on the five Bell-212s and two Bell-412s; Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei has also used them to shuttle around Tehran. While the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps and the Iranian Red Crescent Society purchased Russian Mil Mi-17 utility helicopters several years later, the Air Force has continued to use the older Bells for presidential flights.
What perhaps contributed to the crash was that, with one exception, the Canadian-built helicopters did not come with weather radar, and so they were unsuitable for flights in all-weather conditions. One of the Bell-212s involved in Raisi’s trip to northwest Iran did have weather radar, but its pilots appear to have disregarded all safety regulations given the heavy weight of the helicopters and the dense fog. Zarif can blame sanctions, but sanctions did not force the Islamic Republic of Iran Air Force helicopter pilots to try to fly to Tabriz in conditions no professional pilot in the United States or Europe would accept, no matter who his passenger was.
Iranian diplomats and Western anti-sanctions activists might want to seize upon the crash to demand an end to sanctions, but this is disingenuous. If Iranian authorities and their outside sympathizers truly care about the Iranian people, they would urge a no nonsense approach to weeding out the gross incompetence that marks Iranian aviation today.
