What you need to know about the Bell 212 helicopter that crashed with Iranian President Raisi on board

Iranian authorities have provided little information about the circumstances of the accident that killed President Ebrahim Raisi and eight others, but attributed it to a “technical failure.” US Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin told reporters on Monday that “the United States had no role” in the accident and that the Pentagon had no idea of ​​the cause.

Despite poor relations between Tehran and Washington, the Iranian air force retains five of these American-designed planes for its VIP squadron, including the one involved in the president’s crash, according to Scramble, a Dutch aviation website . Some may be several decades old – data from Cirium, an aviation analytics company, shows the average age of the 15 Bell 212 planes registered in Iran was 35 years – and their maintenance is complicated by international sanctions against Iran .

Bell Helicopter, now Bell Textron, which developed the helicopter in the 1960s, said it had little information on the condition of the helicopter. “We can confirm that Bell does not conduct any activities in Iran or support its helicopter fleet, and we have no knowledge of the active status of the helicopter involved in this accident,” Bell said in a statement to the Post on Monday.

U.S. National Security Council spokesman John Kirby on Monday denied accusations that U.S. sanctions could have led to the crash, calling such claims “completely baseless.”

The helicopter crashed Sunday amid heavy fog in the mountainous terrain of Iran’s East Azerbaijan province. Dozens of search teams worked through the night, struggling across the rugged landscape to reach the scene; News that the site had been found and that all nine people on board were dead came more than 12 hours after the helicopter was reported missing. There was no indication of foul play.

John Cox, a U.S. accident expert, said investigators would also likely focus on bad weather and poor visibility reported at the time of the crash.

“Mountainous terrain and bad weather never mix well for a helicopter flight,” said Jeff Guzzetti, a former federal accident investigator. He described the Bell 212 as “a stalwart.”

A database maintained by the Flight Safety Foundation lists about 430 Bell 212 accidents since 1972, including that of the Iranian president’s helicopter, of which 162 — or just under 40 percent — resulted in fatalities.

Worldwide, 443 Bell 212 aircraft are in service by 144 different operators, and their average age is 42 years, according to Cirium.

The last fatality involving a Bell 212 occurred in September, when a helicopter conducting a training flight crashed off the coast of the United Arab Emirates, according to the Flight Safety Foundation.

Typically, foreign accident investigators draw on the expertise of foreign aircraft manufacturers to help with their investigations, in a process overseen by the U.N. aviation agency. It’s unclear whether Iran will seek the help, but Cox said, “It would be better if the Bell planes were involved in helping the Iranians.” »

Iranian authorities blamed the accident on sanctions imposed on American aircraft equipment. Cox said it would likely be difficult to operate the Bell helicopter in Iran without a third-party source for parts or without cannibalizing the planes for spare parts.

Iran has faced U.S. sanctions since 1979. The measures have broadened and deepened over the years and have been supplemented by European and U.N. sanctions, negatively affecting Iran’s aviation sector and other industries.

There have been times when Iran was able to “legally import” entire planes and their parts from Western countries, said Farzan Sabet, a senior research associate at the Geneva Institute of Advanced Studies.

“Especially since sanctions and export controls have intensified over the past 15 years, (Iran) has found it increasingly difficult to do so,” except for a brief period during the implementation of the Iranian nuclear agreement, before the withdrawal of the United States. under President Donald Trump.

U.S. sanctions block not only U.S.-made planes that can be sold to Iran, but also “planes using sophisticated U.S. components,” Sabet added. The sanctions also make international transactions involving Iran’s civil aviation sector and fleet much more difficult.

John Hudson contributed to this report.