State media said that a helicopter carrying Iran's sports minister crashed on Thursday in the south of the country, killing one of his assistants and wounding 15 others.
According to the official IRNA news agency,
the minister,
Hamid Sajjadi, was injured in the accident while the helicopter
was landing at a stadium in Baft, a town in the Kerman region.
According to IRNA, which also cited the Red
Crescent, his adviser Esmail Ahmadi passed away, and 16 other people—including
the minister, four crew members, and other officials—were hurt.
Despite having a cerebral haemorrhage, the
minister's overall health is stable, according to Mohammad Saberi, the
province's Red Crescent director, who made the announcement on television.
According to IRNA, the Red Crescent chopper
crashed upon landing and was only a few metres (yards) above the ground.
Sanctions-hit Iran has had a number of recent
aviation incidents, and officials have lamented that it is challenging to
obtain new parts for its outdated fleet of aircraft.