Chinmay Prasun Biswas :
Mysterious death of Seyyed Ebrahim Raisi, President of Iran, is the most talked about issue during the last few days.
He died on 19th May in a helicopter crash along with his co-passenger Foreign Minister Hossain Amirabdollahian and seven others including the pilot and crews.
But why did President Raisi board a helicopter made in a country which is his die-hard enemy?
However, the questions that are being raised after the accident are what was the nature of that helicopter? Who is the manufacturer of the vehicle? Does any other country use this helicopter?
The crushed helicopter is known as Bell, manufactured by Textron Industries in the USA. It is specially known as Utility Helicopter (UH). At present helicopters of this brand have been modernised more and has been renamed as Bell Textron.
In the late 1960s the one-engine Bell Copter was developed from the Iroquois helicopter of the UH-1 group. Although an American company is the manufacturer, it was first used by the Canadian Army for military purposes.
Afterwards, America also started using it. Current version of this helicopter has two engines. As a result, its carrying capacity has increased.
However, the Bell 212 helicopters used in Iran are quite old. In fact, most of Iran’s aircrafts or helicopters are old.
Western countries including the US have imposed multiple sanctions on this West Asian country, making it difficult for Iran to procure modern equipment for helicopters or aircrafts.
Even the fighter jets used by the air force of Iran were used during the reign of Reza Shah Pahlavi, before the Islamic Revolution in 1979.
Now the question is what are the positive aspects of this copter?
Being a utility helicopter, the Bell 212 can be used for any civilian purpose such as communication or carrying cargo, as well as carrying weapons.
The Japanese Coast Guard, American investigative agencies currently use these helicopters. The Thai police also use it to reach the place of occurrence quickly. It is not yet clear how many Bell 212 copters are used in Iran.
However, as calculated by an international organisation, Iran’s navy and air force use a total of 10 such helicopters. According to the European Union Aviation Safety Agency, this helicopter can accommodate 15 persons in total including the pilot and crew. Now Textron Group has come up with a more advanced model of this helicopter named Subaru Bell 412.
Police, doctors, firemen can use this advanced model. It is already clear that this vehicle has a special acceptability. Probably for this reason, though old, the president himself used this US built aircraft.
During the recent Hamas-Israel conflict Iran’s bitter relationship with America has worsened further. Inversely, Iran is supporting the Palestinian armed organisation Hamas. America has accused Iran of instigating countries like Syria and Lebanon against Israel.
But it is evident that despite Washington’s opposition and accusation, Iran has trusted the helicopter made in its enemy country. However, after last Sunday’s accident this trust has faced a big question.
In the past there was no major complaint about this helicopter. A privately owned Bell 212 helicopter crashed on the coast of the United Arab Emirates last September. In 2018 four people died when a helicopter of this brand crashed. Apart from these two incidents, there is no information of the crash of Bell helicopters.
However, the crash of the Iranian president’s helicopter has raised questions whether it was just a mechanical fault or a conspiracy or sabotage because he had no scarcity of enemies.
Ibrahim Raisi 63 won the 2021 presidential election defeating his prominent conservative and moderate rivals.
He became president at a time when Iran was passing through a social crisis and the country’s economy was struggling under the pressure of US sanctions over its nuclear programme. Domestically, Implementation of hijab and chastity laws was tightened.
A young Kurdish Iranian woman MahsaAmini died in custody after being arrested by morality police for violating that law. As a result of nationwide protests, more than 500 protesters were killed by security forces and 22,000 were arrested nationwide.
Despite being criticised for strict political stance he was quite popular among the hardliners of Iran. Coming to power he focused on improving relations with neighbours as well as China and Russia to counter US sanctions.
Many countries conveyed grief after the sad death of Ibrahim Raisi. But initially America refrained from expressing any reaction and stated bluntly, “There is no doubt that this man had a lot of blood on his hands.”
Political experts have raised the question – then, whose hands are stained with the blood of the people of Gaza? Israel or those Americans who have supplied weapons for Israel? However, on 21st May, in a short statement, the United States conveyed official condolence.
Israel, a number one enemy of Iran, has been accused of being involved in this mysterious accident. On the backdrop of such accusations Israeli officers said that Israel is not involved in this matter. However, till 22nd May no official statement has been issued by the Israeli government. Though nothing is certain yet, the conjecture of conspiracy is continuing.
(The writer is a former Commissioner of Taxes)