The Iranian President’s helicopter crash, last Sunday, brings to the forefront the issue related to the obsolescence of Iran’s air fleet, due to the impact of sanctions, especially since it is not the first time that Tehran has witnessed such incidents over the past years.
In this context, a report by the British newspaper “Financial Times” stated that:
- Conditions could not have been more difficult as the decades-old helicopter, with thousands of hours of flying time, embarked on a journey over difficult terrain and thick fog.
- It is not clear why the American-made Bell 212 helicopter carrying the Iranian president and his foreign minister crashed on a mountainside near the Azerbaijani border last Sunday.
- But analysts and former officials said the outage was likely due to “technical problems.” Because a large part of the Iranian air fleet is in dire need of spare parts that Tehran was unable to purchase “due to American and other Western sanctions.”
Therefore, the Iranian air fleet “is outdated and should not be able to continue flying,” according to what the newspaper quoted the founder of the Institute of Iranian Studies at the University of St. Andrews, Ali Ansari.
While Tehran has not yet provided an official explanation for the crash, Israeli officials indicated that they were not involved, while US Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer said that US intelligence agencies had informed him that there was no evidence of a crime (that is, that the accident was not caused by Targeting the helicopter.
Instead, the most likely cause is an aging fleet, especially since Tehran’s efforts to renew its fleet or access spare parts and maintenance contracts have been thwarted by Western sanctions imposed on Iranian enterprises and export restrictions on these goods in the space sector for years.
- Iran’s civil aircraft include a group of Airbus A300s that were discontinued more than a decade ago.
- The average age of active aircraft in the passenger fleet is nearly 28 years, more than double the global average, according to the Cirium Aviation Dataset.
- Iran Air, the national carrier, still uses an A300 aircraft that is about 40 years old.
According to the head of Cirium Ascend’s consulting business Rob Morris, “Older aircraft are typically less reliable, and this is reflected in average usage, which averages 4.8 hours per day, about half the global average.”
- Some Western sanctions were lifted after Iran agreed to the 2015 nuclear deal with world powers, and Tehran struck deals with Boeing and Airbus worth more than $40 billion to renew its fleet.
- But this openness suddenly stopped in 2018 after then-US President Donald Trump unilaterally abandoned the nuclear agreement and imposed hundreds of other crippling sanctions.
Aircraft obsolescence
The newspaper’s report stated that a large portion of the Iranian Air Force is older than its civilian fleet, and combines decades-old American aircraft and more, many of which were purchased in the 1970s, Soviet-made aircraft and a small number of airworthy French Mirage F1 aircraft.
Western intelligence officials believe that Russia this year offered secret agreements to supply Iran with advanced Su-35 fighter jets. But there is no evidence that any deals were completed.
According to the International Institute for Strategic Studies, Iranian forces struggle with “increasingly outdated equipment.” Analysts said that was likely a major factor in the government helicopter crashing in bad weather, killing Iranian President Ebrahim Raisi, Foreign Minister Hossein Amir Abdollahian and six other passengers and crew.
The crashed helicopter
- The crashed helicopter has a reputation as a reliable aircraft. It was first developed in the 1960s, used in the Vietnam War, and has remained a strong supporter of global air operations ever since.
- Today they are deployed by organizations as diverse as the Austrian Air Force, Japanese Coast Guard, Thai police forces, and American fire departments.
- University of Michigan aerospace engineering professor Carlos Cesnik said, “Bell 212 and 412 helicopters are widely used and have a very good safety record…but in any accident, operating conditions must be taken into account, with weather and maintenance at the top.” the list”.
Iran has 62 Bell helicopters in active operation, including 13 Bell 212s, according to Cirium.
Iranian aircraft are worn out
Director of the Arab Center for Research and Studies and expert on Iranian affairs and international relations, Hani Suleiman, said in exclusive statements to the “Eqtisad Sky News Arabia” website that the recent incident reopens the more realistic file now, which is linked to the nature and condition of Iranian aircraft and Tehran’s air fleet.
He added: “With the increasing years of American and Western sanctions on Iran, this has created a kind of state of wear and tear for obsolete aircraft, with the lack of spare parts or regular maintenance to ensure their precise safety.”
He pointed out that this matter created a kind of question marks about the state of Iranian civil aviation and helicopters, especially since during the previous decades, many aircraft accidents occurred extensively in a short time amid great ambiguity that raises many question marks, and reflects the nature of the crisis that the Iranian aviation sector is suffering from.
Suleiman added: “This matter reflects the incident of the Iranian president, and is it related to technical problems in flying and taking off under difficult weather conditions, or problems specific to the plane itself, the signals system, and the fine details?”
Returning to the British newspaper’s report, the financial and commercial sanctions partner at the HFW law firm, Daniel Martin, was quoted as saying that the spare parts for the technical systems on board the Bell helicopter are certainly subject to American, British and European export controls.
Despite some exceptions to US sanctions, including the ability to apply for export licenses for civil aviation safety, Martin said it is not clear how many companies have applied to export such parts.
He added: “The United States targeted airlines and equipment… I do not think it can be said that the United States was targeting regular commercial flights, but there is an inevitable impact on safety.”
According to Bell Textron, the American company that manufactured the Raisi helicopter that crashed, “Bell does not conduct any business in Iran or support its helicopter fleet.”
Impact of sanctions
The researcher specializing in Iranian affairs and the Executive Director of the Arab Forum for Analysis of Iranian Policies, Muhammad Khairi, said in exclusive statements to the “Eqtisad Sky News Arabia” website:
- The US sanctions imposed on Iran since 1979 and the subsequent sanctions imposed after the US withdrawal from the nuclear agreement in 2018 caused several crises in the majority of sensitive sectors in Iran.
- The most prominent of these sectors was the civil aviation sector, as the fleet of civil aircraft, whether Airbus specialized in transporting passengers, or helicopters used by the Presidency, or even military aviation, was not modernized.
- More than 20 civilian aircraft stopped operating due to operational restrictions related to the lack of spare parts that the relevant authorities in Iran failed to obtain as a result of US sanctions.
- Some US sanctions on Iran prevented Iran from importing more than 10 percent of the required volume of spare parts to rehabilitate its American-made aircraft.
- Also, the period after the nuclear agreement in 2015 was not sufficient for the Iranian authorities to obtain new aircraft or even enough spare parts to modernize the Iranian helicopter or Airbus fleet.
He pointed out that the crisis lies in the fact that the majority of Iran’s helicopters are American-made and have been in existence since the rule of Shah Mohammad Reza Pahlavi, and because of the sanctions imposed after the Iranian revolution in 1979, Iran did not update the operating systems for its air fleet, which prompted Mohsen Mansouri, the executive assistant. For the late Iranian president to address Vice President Mohammad Mokhber and demand that he expedite the purchase of Russian-made aircraft instead of obsolete American aircraft, to avoid disasters.
Helicopter accidents
It is noteworthy that although they are less safe compared to airplanes – the fatal accident rate in the United States is about 1.3 per 100,000 hours compared to 0.98 for airplanes, according to the National Transportation Safety Board – helicopters remain the backbone of military logistics and VIP travel. On short trips in many countries.
However, military helicopter accidents occur more regularly, for example:
- The US National Guard temporarily grounded all of its helicopters in February after two crashes within a month.
- Ten crew members were killed in a navy helicopter crash last month in Malaysia, while another accident killed the highest-ranking military officer in Kenya.
- Russian helicopters used by the Colombian Armed Forces have also been involved in a number of recent accidents, the most recent of which was a fatal crash last month that killed nine soldiers on board.
Various incidents in Iran
Iran, which keeps its planes flying through a combination of smuggled parts and reverse engineering, has a particularly checkered history. In 2005, a military transport plane crashed into an apartment building in Tehran, killing 128 people, according to state media.
More recently, a helicopter carrying Iranian Sports Minister Hamid Sajadi crashed last year while trying to land on a football field. The minister survived, but his assistant died and 12 others were injured. Five months later, a training plane crashed in western Iran, killing two people.
For his part, the researcher in Iranian affairs, Ali Atef, said in exclusive statements to the “Eqtisad Sky News Arabia” website:
- Iran suffers from the aging of its air fleet, especially since some of these aircraft date back to before 1979.
- Over the decades that followed that year, successive sanctions packages were imposed on Iran, affecting the aviation sector, as they prevented Tehran from importing spare parts, disrupting maintenance and renewal operations, which led to the recurrence of aviation accidents in the country.
He explained that the incident of Iranian President Ebrahim Raisi’s helicopter crash was not the first. Rather, there was another prominent incident in 2005 when a plane crash killed the former commander of the ground forces in the Revolutionary Guard, Ahmed Kazemi, and in 2023 there was a similar incident in which the Iranian Minister of Sports was injured. Another similar incident occurred in 2022.
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