Mehrdad Bazrpash: Since there was only one telecommunications tower active in the area, we were unable to determine the exact location of the crash.
Mehrdad Bazrpash, Iran’s Minister of Roads, who was in one of the three helicopters in Ebrahim Raisi’s convoy on the day of the Qiz Qalasi Dam inauguration, has shared his account of the first moments after the disappearance of the Iranian president’s helicopter in an interview with Iranian state television.
In this interview, Bazrpash says that in the initial moments after the helicopter crash, the phones of the Friday prayer leader of Tabriz, the foreign minister, and the governor of East Azerbaijan were ringing. However, because there was only one BTS telecommunications tower nearby, the rescuers were unable to determine the exact location of the helicopter crash.
According to Mr. Bazrpash, at least three BTS towers are needed to determine the exact location of a mobile phone, but there was only one BTS tower near there.
Previously, the news of a phone call with Mohammad Ali Al-Hashem, the Friday prayer leader of Tabriz, in the moments after the crash had created ambiguities regarding the reason for the rescue forces’ inability to precisely determine the crash location.
Mehrdad Bazrpash says that the crew of the helicopter carrying Ali Akbar Mehrabian, the Minister of Energy, and Gholamhossein Esmaeili, the head of the president’s office, noticed the disappearance of the president’s helicopter around twenty minutes to two on Sunday, May 20th.