Iran’s president, foreign minister, other officials confirmed dead in helicopter crash
There was no immediate cause for the crash, but the helicopter had to make a ‘hard landing’ on Sunday, state media reported
A total of nine people, including a provincial governor, were on board when the aircraft went down in northern Iran’s East Azerbaijan province.
No mayday call from pilot indicates a ‘serious controllability issue’
Aviation analyst Kyle Bailey has told Al Jazeera the lack of communication from the helicopter pilot or another flight crew member left no doubt that there was a “serious controllability issue”.
He said that if a helicopter has a serious technical issue mid-flight, the pilot’s first task is to “keep the plane flying, and then communications would be second”.
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Bell Helicopter (now Bell Textron) developed the aircraft in the late 1960s as an upgrade of the original UH-1 Iroquois for the Canadian military.
The new design used two turboshaft engines instead of one, giving it greater carrying capacity.
According to US military training documents, the helicopter was introduced in 1971 and quickly adopted by both the United States and Canada.
The craft is designed to carry aerial firefighting gear and cargo and to mount weapons.
This particular helicopter had been reconfigured to carry 15 people, including a pilot.