“After our noon prayers, we departed towards the direction of Tabriz. The weather was clear, there was no weather condition to be worried about. After half an hour being in the air, prior to reaching the Sungun copper mine, there was a small patch of clouds; interviewer asks: “So there was no fog?” He replied, not at all. There was fog on the ground, but not in up the air where we were advancing with the helicopters. However in one small compacted area, there was a small patch of clouds above a cliff. In terms of height, this cloud was on the same height as our flight’s height.
It was there when the now-martyred helicopter pilot, who was also the commander of the fleet, that told the rest of the pilots to ascend above the clouds. We were the 3rd pilot, behind the president’s helicopter. We came above the clouds, we advanced for approximately 30 seconds. Our pilot suddenly realised that the main helicopter carrying the president is missing.
Interviewer asks: “You didn’t see the helicopter anymore after ascending?”
He replied, yes exactly, after ascending above the clouds, we didn’t see the main helicopter. The ascension itself didn’t feel difficult or hard. Sometimes, when we use the plane we feel turbulence but we didn’t feel anything at all inside the helicopter this time, when ascending. And after we ascended there were no other clouds.
Interviewer asks: “So beyond this, there were no weather forecasts mentioning any disturbances in the weather to make it unsafe?” He replied, no there wasn’t any.
Description of the crash accident of the Iranian president's helicopter from the words of his chief of staff who was present in the 3rd helicopter behind them:
I transcribed of what he said:
After our noon prayers, we departed towards the direction of Tabriz. The weather was… pic.twitter.com/uM4rOauASv
— Arya – آریا 🇮🇷🏴 (@AryJeay) May 21, 2024
h/t RundaPlazan