One dead after a helicopter carrying Iran’s sports minister crashes: State media

Shafaq News/ A helicopter carrying 12 passengers, including Iran’s sports minister Hamid Sajjadi, crashed in south-central Iran on Thursday, killing one person, state media reported.

The helicopter crashed as it was preparing to land in the sports complex of Baft, a small city in Kerman province, the official IRNA news agency reported, citing an eyewitness.

Esmail Ahmadi, an advisor to the sports minister, was killed in the crash, the semi-official Fars news agency said.

Citing an eyewitness, IRNA reported that the condition of the minister was “favorable.”

The cause of the crash is under investigation, IRNA cited Kerman’s governor, Mohammad-Mehdi Fadakar, as saying.

In January, the European Union imposed sanctions on Sajjadi over Tehran’s crackdown on anti-regime protests that followed the death of Iranian-Kurdish woman Mahsa Amini in police custody in September.