Iranian President Ebrahim Raisi, whose death in a helicopter crash was announced Monday, is the latest major political leader to die in an aviation accident.
Here are some of the best known among the others:
On 6 February 2024, former Chilean president Sebastian Pinera (in office from 2010-2014, and then 2018-2022), died in a helicopter accident at Lago Ranco, a vacation site 920 kilometres (570 miles) south of the capital Santiago.
On 30 July 2005, John Garang, the former separatist rebel leader who became vice-president of South Sudan after its creation, died when his helicopter crashed in Sudan on a flight back from Uganda.
The 26th of February 2004, Macedonia’s president Boris Trajkovski was killed along with eight others when his plane crashed as it prepared to land in thick fog in the southern Bosnian town of Mostar.
On 6 April 1994, a Falcon 50 transporting Rwandan president Juvenal Habyarimana and his Burundi counterpart Cyprien Ntaryamira was shot down over Kigali by at least one missile. The attack is considered the spark that unleashed the genocide of Tutsis that left at least 800,000 dead, according to the United Nations.
Pakistan’s president Zia ul-Haq was among the victims of a 17 August 1988 plane accident near Bahawalpur, in the country’s east.
On 19 October 1986, Mozambique’s first president Samora Machel died when his Tupolev 134 crashed in the north-east of South Africa.
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