The first of several memorial services has begun in Iran for President Ebrahim Raisi, Foreign Minister Hossein Amirabdollahian and other victims of Sunday’s helicopter crash, as details of the final moments before the crash emerged.
Thousands of government supporters gathered at the ceremony in the northwestern city of Tabriz on Tuesday to say goodbye, state media reported.
Tabriz is the capital of the East Azerbaijan province where the accident occurred.
Videos shared by Iranian news agencies showed crowds under cloudy skies and an open truck carrying coffins adorned with flowers slowly driving through the streets.
The crowd jostled around the truck as people tried to get their hands on the coffin belonging to Raisi and other victims. According to Tasnim news agency, Interior Minister Ahmad Vahidi was in the crowd.
Other mourning ceremonies are planned in the religious stronghold and pilgrimage city of Qom, as well as in the capital Tehran.
A military band played as the coffins arrived at Tehran airport to be transferred to Qom, as seen in a video published by the IRNA news agency. The bodies were carried on a red carpet.
Several traffic restrictions were imposed in the capital Tehran because of the funeral procession.
Raisi and Amirabdollahian died in a helicopter crash with seven other occupants. They fell into thick clouds in the mountains while returning from a meeting with Ilham Aliyev, the president of Azerbaijan.
On Tuesday, an official flying in another aircraft who was part of the delegation described conditions before the crash as clear.
The helicopter that crashed was one of three returning from the meeting and Raisi’s chief of staff was traveling in one of the others.
“The weather was cloudless, completely clear and clear,” Gholam-Hossein Esmaili told the state broadcaster on Tuesday.
But clouds rolled in after about half an hour in the air and the pilot of the presidential helicopter, who was flying in the center of the fleet, ordered the aircraft to climb higher. Shortly afterwards, the pilot of Esmaili’s helicopter realized that Raisi’s helicopter was no longer among them.
“Why are we coming back?” asked the chief of staff. The copilot responded that the president’s helicopter was missing and that the crew assumed it had made an emergency landing.
The other two helicopters spent several minutes circling over the area before their radio communications were interrupted.
The two aircraft landed near a copper mine shortly afterwards due to poor visibility.
Iran’s religious leader, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, ordered five days of national mourning. Tasnim reported that a national holiday has been scheduled for Wednesday.
Another funeral procession is planned in Tehran, and a ceremony honoring the crash victims will also take place in the afternoon in the presence of senior foreign dignitaries.
Raisi will be buried on Thursday in the Shiite center of his hometown of Mashhad, at the shrine of Imam Reza, the eighth imam of Shiite Islam.
In Iran and abroad, government supporters mourned Raisi’s death, while critics spoke of his government’s repression.
