The commanders of the army and the IRGC met with the families of the victims of the President's flight

They were then forced to make emergency landings, an official told state TV as the operation continued into the night. Vice President for Executive Affairs Mohsen Mansouri also said contacts had been made with two people on the president’s helicopter - a flight crew member and one other individual. "This indicates that the severity of the incident was not very high, as two of the individuals inside the helicopter managed to communicate with our team multiple times,” he added, without providing further details. However, any hopes that Raisi and his entourage had survived were dashed after daybreak on Monday. At about 05:00 (01:30 GMT), rescuers spotted the wreckage from a distance from about 2km (1.2 miles) and then took about an hour to reach it, according to the head of the Iranian Red Crescent, Pirhossein Kolivand.