Video footage of Iranian president Ebrahim Raisi show the hardliner’s final moments before his fatal helicopter crash on Sunday.
The clip shows the 63-year-old inside the craft before the doomed flight disappeared on Sunday, May 19.
Thick fog and rain hampered the search for the president and the rest of the travelling party. However, the eighth president of the Middle Eastern country was confirmed to have died on the morning of May 20.
The others that died included Foreign Minister Hossein Amirabdollahian, imam for Friday prayers in the city of Tabriz Ayatollah Mohammad Ali Al-e Hashem, and General Malek Rahmati who was the governor of the Iranian province of East Azerbaijan.
Sardar Seyed Mehdi Mousavi, was the commander of the presidential protection unit, also lost his life.
A number of bodyguards and helicopter crew were also killed, however IRNA, the state news agency, is yet to name them.
During the frantic search, which saw rescuers from the country’s allies scrambled to help, a Turkish drone identified a heat source on a hillside in north of Iran.
A clip from the Bayraktar Akinci high-altitude long-range drone, released by news agency Anadolu, showed the landscape punctuated by a dark spot, which was said to be a source of heat.
The agency said it shared the information with Iranian authorities.
Numerous US politicians reacted to the news of the crash. Michael Waltz, the Republican chairman of the House Armed Services Committee, took to X to write: “Good riddance”.
He added: “Raisi was a murderous human rights abuser before and during his Presidency”.
Meanwhile, Republican Rick Scott from Florida wrote on the platform: “If Raisi is dead, the world is now a safer & better place”.
He went on: “If he’s gone, I truly hope the Iranian people have the chance to take their country back from murderous dictators”.
According to Chuck Schumer, a top Senate Democrat, the US intelligence services believe there is “no evidence of foul play”. However, the New York senator said he would “keep the monitoring the situation as it unfolds”.