#Search and rescue aircraft | Explore Tumblr Posts and Blogs

cherrycola27 · 2 years

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Fallout

Summary: what happens after Rooster's worst fear becomes his reality?

Pairing: Rooster x Reader

Warnings: Language, Ejection, Pregnancy Complications

There were very few things in this world that unnerved Rooster Bradshaw.

The thought of losing his wife was one.

Something happening to their unborn child was another.

But the thing that he couldn't get over, the fear that lived deep in his mind, for as far back as he could remember, was having to eject over deep water and the canopy malfunctioning.

The thought crept into Rooster's mind on every over water flight. The fear that he would die like his father did. It became even more prominent after you had gotten married, and now that you were expecting a child in a few months, it seemed even worse.

He told himself it was a freak accident that killed his father, that planes were safer now, but no matter how much he told himself that, he could never shake the eerie feeling of it.

It was supposed to be a routine training day. A few test flights with the new recruits over water. He wasn't even supposed to be flying, but Coyote woke up with the flu, so he filled in.

The scene played out in front of him in slow motion.

The birds came out of no where.

Left engine on fire.

Right engine gone.

The desperation he felt has he tried to regain control of the aircraft.

He couldn't save it.

Maverick screamed at him to eject... and so he did.

And then it happened.

His worst fear realized: the canopy didn't open all the way.

His life flashed before his eyes. He thought of you. The widow you would be come. And thought of his child and how they would never know him.

When his body made contact with the canopy, the last thought that crossed his mind was: "I tried so hard to live like my father, and now I'm going to die like him."

Maverick watched and heard the scene unfold in horror. He saw Rooster's plane catch on fire. He heard the fear in his voice as he tried desperately to save it. Rooster had once told him his biggest fear was dying like his father, and now he was living it.

For Maverick it felt like losing Goose all over again.

He remembers screaming for Bradley to eject. Bradley telling him to tell his wife he loved her, and then before the coms went dead, he heard it, the unmistakable sound of Rooster's body colliding with the canopy.

Maverick felt his heart drop. Bile rose into his throat as he desperately tried to contact him.

"This can't be happening again. I can't lose him. I can't tell another wife and child their husband and father is gone. I can't lose him Goose." Maverick thought.

His ears were ringing as people around him scrambled while search and rescue was deployed.

Maverick gripped the microphone crying out for Rooster to respond, but he didn't. He didn't even realize he had collapsed on the floor until he felt Hangman and Payback lifting him up and dragging him out of the room.

It was a typical Wednesday afternoon for you. You were finishing up some decorating in the nursery when you heard the knock on the door. "I wonder who that could be?" You said cradling you five month along baby bump.

You padded your way to the door, and when you opened it to find both Hangman and Maverick standing there with sorrowful eyes. Your heart dropped and the grip on your stomach tightened.

You don't remember much of what they said. After Maverick told you "There's been and accident." Your screams and tears filled your ears. You would have collapsed right there at your front door had Jake not caught you.

The two men escorted you to Jake's car and helped you in so they could take you to the hospital. You felt sick. On the ride there, you heard them talking to you, but it was all a blur.

You remember hearing Maverick explain what happened in bits and pieces... bird strike... both engines failed.... ejection over water... he hit the canopy.

You knew that was Rooster fear. He had told you how his father died from a very similar situation and how he prayed it would never happen to him. But it did. However, he was alive, for now.

No one knew exactly what condition he was in. You were trembling as Hangman and Maverick lead you into the hospital.

Your thoughts were racing as they tried to find out about Bradley. You were sure if they weren't holding onto you, you would drop to the floor in panic.

The doctors escorted you to his room. The doctors tried to explain to you what happened, but you couldn't hear them over the pounding of your own heart in your ears.

You felt sick as you looked through the glass.

Rooster lay there in the hospital bed. His right arm was in a sling. You could see some bruises along his face, some cuts dotted his forehead and there was a fresh set of stitches in his chin in almost the exact same spot his other scar was.

"Y/N" Maverick said gently touching your arm.

"What? I'm sorry what did you say?" You ask snapping back to reality.

"The doctors said he has a broken arm, a few bruised ribs and a concussion. He's lucky to be—that it wasn't worse than this." Maverick says. You hear the crack in voice. You know that this hard for him to, for him to see Rooster like this, to have witnessed the same thing happen to him that happened to Goose.

But he's right. Rooster was lucky. He could have died over the water, just like the man he tried so hard to emulate.

"They are keeping him sedated for now for the pain. They'll wake him up tomorrow. You don't have to stay here, I can take you home and get you in the morning or meet you over here." Maverick tells you.

"No, I'm not leaving him. I can't." You say trying to fight off fresh tears.

It had been six weeks since the accident. Rooster had been cleared by medical to fly again and he was itching to get back into the cockpit.

He was suiting up to do a test flight. "You ready to get back up there?" Hangman asked patting him on the shoulder.

"Yeah. I was going crazy on paper duty." Rooster smiles at him before grabbing his helmet and taking off.

He went through his preflight checks and was strapped into his seat.

He took a few deep breath as the canopy came down. He could hear coms in his ears. His jet was positioned to take off and then it hit him.

The panic, the fear that he couldn't breath.

His chest tighten as black spots clouded his vision.

"Lieutenant Commander, are you ready for takeoff?" Range control asked him.

"Rooster are you okay?" He heard Hangman ask.

"Pull yourself together Bradley." He thought to himself.

He reached out for the throttle but his hand was trembling.

"Fuck!" He cursed before opening the canopy and climbing out of his jet.

Maverick tried to talk to him once he reached the tarmac, but Rooster sped past him to the locker rooms.

He slammed his gear into locker, grabbed his keys and headed home.

You had busied yourself preparing for the arrival of your child. You had three months left in your pregnancy and for the past week and a half you hadn't been feeling the best. Your OB said everything was fine but you weren't convinced. You had wanted to say something to Bradley, but after his accident he had been so—so distant with you. Cold even.

You knew he was stressed and there was some underlying tension with everything. You hoped that once he was able to fly again he would be better.

You knew today was the day he would finally get back up in the sky and you were so happy for him.

You prayed that this was what he needed to get back to normal. You couldn't take much more of him shutting you out. These past six weeks had been hard on both of you, physically and mentally.

You let out a deep breath as you felt another pain in your abdomen.

"Listen here kid... I love you, but if you could not play soccer with my organs, that would be great." You told your unborn child.

You were in the kitchen getting ready to start dinner when you heard your husband's keys in the door.

He came in and toed his boots off in the hallway. You wiped your hands off and went to greet him.

"Hey baby how was your—" he brushed past your out stretched arms and went straight for the fridge grabbing a beer and downing it in one gulp before placing his hands on the kitchen island. His shoulders shrugged and he let out a deep breath.

"Oh no baby. Did medical not let you fly today? I'm sorry. I'm sure they had a good reason." You say going to rub his back.

He abruptly shifts away from your touch. You can tell he is tense.

"They did clear me to fly but I couldn't do it. I got ready for take off and I panicked. So I jumped out of my plane and ran away like some scared little kid." He grumbled out.

"Baby. It's okay Bradley. Maybe just need a little more time to—"

"I don't need more TIME!" He yells at you smacking his fist on the counter.

You jump back from him and feel a tinge in your stomach.

"Rooster you went through something very traumatic, no one is going to fault you if you aren't ready. No one is going to be upset if you need more time to process or if you need to talk to someone" You try to calm him.

"I don't need more time Y/N! I've spent six weeks cooped up in this house or in an office doing paperwork! I need to get back in a plane." He growls turning to face you. His face is flushed in anger.

"Bradley you almost died for crying out loud! That's not something you get over. It takes time to heal. It isn't a race. Physically you may be fine, but I'm worried mentally you aren't okay!" You say at a decibel louder than you intended as another sharp pain shoots through you.

"You haven't been yourself lately! You're cold, and distant, you don't talk to me about anything. You... you aren't... you're just—"

Another prick of pain cuts you off.

You can feel the heat rising to your cheeks now. You don't want to argue with your husband. You just wish he wouldn't be so hard headed.

"OH MY FUCKING GOD! I am going to lose it if one more person makes a comment about my mental health! I am a Naval fucking Aviator! I am one of the mentally strongest people in the world. Do you not realize that? I'm a pilot who's spent six weeks on the ground! Of course I haven't been myself! And did you ever think that maybe I don't want to talk about what happened?

And I've been distant because the week after I got discharged you smothered me trying to take care of me! I'm a grown man, I didn't need you fussing over me! I don't need you trying to psychoanalyze or treating me like a child!

All you wanted to to talk about was what happened and how I was feeling. I was feeling like I wanted to let it go and pretend it didn't happen but you wouldn't let it rest!" He screams at you and points and accusatory finger at you.

Your cheeks are burning and tears brim your eyes. You ball your hands into fist and open your mouth ready to scream at him. But instead your words die your throat as a searing pain rips through you and you crumple on the kitchen floor.

Rooster instantly softens and jumps to your side.

"Honey what's wrong?" He asks as panic sets into his body.

You grab your stomach and gasp out. "It... it hurts."

The color drains from his face. You're barely six months along. It's too soon for you to be going into labor.

Without hesitating Rooster scoops you up bridal style. He slips on some slides he keeps by the door and runs you to the Bronco. He carefully buckles you in as more pain racks your body.

Rooster breaks God knows how many traffic laws to get you to the ER.

He rushes you in while cradling you in his arms.

"Please someone help. My wife... she collapsed... she's having abdominal pain and she is pregnant!" He all but yells at the doctors and nurses. They quickly take you in a room and start asking him questions. You're too much pain to speak.

"How far along is she?" Someone asks "6 months... um 27 weeks." He stammers out.

"Has she had this pain before?" A doctor asks.

"Um... um... I don't know she... she hasn't said anything to me... I'm not sure. He stutters out.

"Her BP is extremely high and her heart rate is spiking. Fetal heart rate is high too. Pushing meds now. Someone get her and the baby on a heart monitor stat!" A doctor yells. Rooster panics not knowing what to do.

"What's happening?" He ask to no one in particular as the medical staff moves in a flurry around you.

"Sir, sir! I'm sorry you can't be in here right now we need space to work!" A nurse says as to him as he is pushed out of the the room.

He sighs heads to the waiting room. He does the only thing he can think to do... he calls Maverick.

The phone rings once before Pete answers.

"Mav." Rooster breathes into the receiver trying not to cry.

"Rooster what's wrong?" Maverick asks him.

"It's Y/N. She collapsed. We are at the emergency room. They won't let me back there with her." Rooster tells him as tears slip down his face.

"I'll be there in fifteen." Maverick tells him before hanging up.

Rooster send a message to the Dagger Squad group chat. They all love you. And he knows they would want to know. He presses send on the message and runs a shaky hand over his face.

"This is all my fault." He thinks. "If I hadn't shut her out. If hadn't been so mean, if I hadn't yelled at her." He mentally kicks himself.

Less than fifteen minutes later the entire ER lobby is filled with Maverick, Penny, Amelia, and the entire Dagger Squad. Rooster tells them they didn't have to come to which Phoenix responds "We are family Rooster. Family is there for you you no matter what."

Rooster pulled her into a hug. "Maverick, can I talk to you?" He asked.

"Sure Rooster. Let's take a walk and get some coffee." Maverick said hopping up.

"We'll call you if we hear anything." Hangman said before the duo left.

When they were out of earshot of the group Rooster explained what happened.

"It's all my fault Maverick. I came home so mad at myself and I took it out on her. I've been awful to her these past few weeks. I shut her out, and she tried talking to me about it today and I... I just lost it on her. The last thing they said was her blood pressure was extremely high, and so was her heart rate and the baby's. I did this to her. I stressed her out. I'm the reason she is here." Rooster sobbed as Maverick pulled him in for a hug.

"Bradley, this isn't your fault. You can't blame yourself. Y/N is strong. She is going to be okay. When you get to see her, you need to apologize. Tell her everything you did wrong and beg for her forgiveness. And I think you should talk to Doc on base. You aren't weak for seeing a counselor." Maverick told him.

"You're right Mav. She even said I need to talk to someone. God I told her she smothered me and I didn't need her to take care of me. I'm such an idiot. She is going to hate me after this." Rooster berated himself.

"Rooster. You made a mistake. You've been under a lot of stress. Y/N loves you. She could never hate you. Now calm down. Everything is going to be okay." Maverick assured him.

The pair of pilots made their way back to the waiting room. Bradley's foot tapped nervously against the floor.

"Bradshaw." A nurse called out. Everyone jumped up.

"Um, just the husband?" The nurse said looking at the group.

Rooster quickly followed her to the room you were in.

"Y/N baby!" He greeted you moving forward to take your hand.

"Hey honey." You smiled at him.

"Lieutenant Commander Bradshaw." The doctor began.

"Your wife's blood pressure was dangerously high, her heart rate and the baby's was much higher than we would like them to be. Has she been under a lot of stress recently?"

"Yes. I'm an aviator and had an accident at work." Rooster states.

"I see, well, we'd like to keep her overnight to make sure there are no signs of pre-eclampsia and to monitor her and the baby." The doctor continues.

"Mrs. Bradshaw. Stress coupled with your blood pressure is most likely what caused your pain. I can see from your chart that your OB saw you last week for the pain but everything seemed normal then. If it continues to stay elevated like this, there is a possibility we are going to have to put you on bed rest, we will know more in the morning." The doctor states before leaving the room.

"You went to the OB last week for pain and didn't tell me?" Rooster asks you once you are alone.

"You were so stressed about work. You barely talked to me. I— I didn't want to worry you. I wasn't sure you would care" You confess.

Rooster almost breaks at your words.

"Honey, you and this baby are the most important things to me. As long as I have you two I don't care if I never fly again. I'm sorry for how I've been. I shouldn't have lashed out at you. I should have paid attention. I should have been there for you." Rooster cries.

You wipe the tears from his face.

"You're here now. That's what matters."

He leans down to kiss you.

He doesn't leave your side for the entire night or the next day. Thankfully you are cleared to go home but you have to be checked weekly by your OB as a precaution.

Rooster works to take extra good care of you and himself. He talks to the counselor on base multiple times to fully process everything instead of trying to bottle it up.

A few weeks later he is able to get back into a plane and fly.

Three months later he is by your side for the birth of a healthy baby boy.

Later in the evening while you're sleeping he picks Nicholas up from his hospital crib and holds him close to his chest. He looks at his son and looks at you. Then he looks towards the setting sun and thanks his father for watching over him that day and bringing him back to his family.

Tag List: @dreamingathighaltitude @shanimallina87 @luckyladycreator2 @mak-32 @katieshook02 @samhapner6 @rosiahills22 @thedroneranger @roosterforme

#top gun maverick #top gun #bradley rooster bradshaw #rooster bradshaw #bradley bradshaw #rooster top gun #rooster x you #rooster x y/n #rooster x reader #rooster x wife!reader #rooster fluff #lt. bradley bradshaw #bradley bradshaw x reader #top gun rooster #top gun fic #tgm fic #tgm #top gun 2

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nocternalrandomness · 9 months

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The Erickson Aircraft Collection's 1944 PBY-5A photographed over Lake Billy Chinook, Oregon

#PBY-5A #Catalina #Cat #Patrol Bomber #Flying boat #Amphibious aircraft #seaplane #Search and rescue aircraft #Maritime patrol #Aviation photos

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bigglesworld · 8 months

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Grumman G-21 Goose. Designed as a light amphibious transport. 345 of the type were built

#grumman #goose #military aircraft #civil aircraft #flying boat #search and rescue

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mariacallous · 5 months

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This is dated 12-29-2023, for the record.

It was a nightmare scenario that Ukrainian and Western officials had feared for months. Western officials have watched as Russia stacked up precision-guided munitions to launch targeted attacks on Ukrainian critical infrastructure in the winter while keeping up the pace of strikes on cities using unguided “dumb” bombs.

And on Friday morning, it became a reality. Russia conducted a hailstorm of strikes across Ukraine, hitting Kyiv, Dnipro, Lviv, Zaporizhzhia, Odesa, and Kharkiv. There were at least 158 drone and missile strikes in all, which damaged hospitals, a shopping mall, and schools, killing at least 31 people and injuring more than 160.

The numbers are still going up as search and rescue teams pick through the rubble. Russia fired its missiles with so much abandon that the Polish government confirmed one of the Kremlin’s projectiles entered its airspace. In the chaos that engulfed the Kyiv streets, one man tried to stop the fires from spreading by driving his burning car away from his neighbors.

The renewed barrages have Ukrainian officials and U.S. experts questioning how long they’ll be able to keep the lights on during winter—or hold territory—especially with the long tail of U.S. military aid running out, unless Congress acts soon.

Ukrainian officials believe that Russia’s capacity to strike is even greater than what it just showed off: The Kremlin can fire off about 300 Iranian-made suicide drones in one attack on Ukraine and about 150 ballistic missiles in one shot on Kyiv, said Sasha Ustinova, a Ukrainian lawmaker.

And with the Ukrainian counteroffensive stalled and fresh weapons not flowing until January at the earliest, how resilient will the Ukrainians be?

“The Ukrainians are heading for a tough winter, for obvious reasons,” Swedish Defense Minister Pal Jonson said in an interview earlier this month. “But I think that the Ukrainian morale is much, much higher than the Russian morale. What is crucial right now, of course, is that we all will step up support.”

But that morale is now getting tested, as Ukrainians were shaken out of bed by dozens of air raid alerts that lit up their phones. And the aid isn’t coming—at least until the U.S. Congress gets back from recess in the second week of January, and maybe for even longer.

“Ukraine needs funding now to continue to fight for freedom from such horror in 2024,” Bridget Brink, the U.S. ambassador to Ukraine, wrote in a tweet screenshotting the numerous air raid alerts sent to Kyiv residents.

U.S. officials have seen movement across the nearly stagnant front lines slow considerably in recent weeks, a trend that is expected to continue. The weather in Ukraine has hit subzero temperatures and piles of snow have mostly halted forward movement along the 600-mile front, underscoring the prospect of several months of attrition warfare. Ukraine is already making moves to lower the draft age to get more men onto the battlefield.

Ukraine doesn’t need any silver bullets, experts say. It just needs the regular kind.

“We’re clearly past the ground counteroffensive now,” said Peter Rough, a senior fellow and director of the Center on Europe and Eurasia at Hudson Institute. “Since it won’t get large numbers of longer-range precision fires, Ukraine probably needs to entrench and defend right now—and absent Congress passing the supplemental, even those defensive lines may not remain stable.”

Still, Jonson said the Ukrainian military has been getting some access to more long-range strike weapons, which has forced Russian ships and aircraft to move farther away from the front lines. But Ukraine has had to build its military while fending off the invasion: Jonson said that Kyiv is operating about 600 types of Western weapons systems, while ferrying fuel and spare parts across the front line. All that on roads that will be coated with sleet, snow, and ice.

Even with its limited arsenal of Western-provided long-range weapons like British-made Storm Shadows and the cluster variant of the U.S. Army Tactical Missile System, Ukraine has still made a dent, knocking out a Russian tank landing ship in Crimea on Tuesday. And experts believe that Russia’s fragile logistics system—which was never designed for continuous military operations across Europe’s second-largest country—is a good target.

“If they had longer-range weapons, they could completely wreck the logistics system,” said Ben Hodges, the former head of U.S. Army Europe. “I think they know this is a real vulnerability for the Russians, particularly in winter.”

But Ukrainians fear they are already running out of munitions—and time. Though Western-provided air defenses blanket much of Kyiv, they are not enough to defend against far-flung Russian attacks that could dot the country during winter. As much as Ukraine needs more air defenses to blunt attacks like Friday’s firestorm, Ukrainian officials have indicated that the falling temperatures have already shifted their priorities: Attrition warfare means a premium on artillery fire, and Europe is far behind on its target to produce a million artillery shells by March 2024.

“The biggest problem we’re going to run into is when they start shelling us heavily,” Ustinova said. “Because we will not have enough munitions.”

But Ukraine has been forced to cut military operations as aid has dried up. Ukrainian Brig. Gen. Oleksandr Tarnavskyi, who heads up a group of forces in the southern push, told the BBC this week that Ukraine is facing particularly acute shortages of Soviet-era 122 mm and 152 mm shells, which still make up a large portion of Kyiv’s military arsenal. And if the Ukrainians want to apply forward pressure in spite of the snow, they have to clear entire minefields in front of them, only for the Russians to reseed the deadly explosives from the air.

The Russian war chest is still heavily stocked. Hanno Pevkur, the Estonian defense minister, said in November that Russia still has about 7,000 to 8,000 tanks in reserve. Meanwhile, Russia has turned its sanctions-battered economy into a war economy. The Kremlin plans to spend 6 percent of GDP on defense next year. And Russian President Vladimir Putin’s deals for drones with Iran and ammunition with North Korea have indicated to Western officials that Russia’s game is quantity, not quality.

“It doesn’t matter. As long as it fires, as long as it unfortunately kills Ukrainians, it is good for Russians,” Pevkur said. “They are increasing their production, especially ammunition. They don’t care about the quality. They care about the quantity.”

Western officials believe that there are 300,000 to 400,000 Russian troops on Ukrainian soil, across a swath of occupied territory that is about the size of the contiguous Baltic states. Russian casualties have totaled about that many troops in the 22 months since the Kremlin’s full-scale invasion began. But experts caution that the cannon fodder won’t last forever. It might not have to last that much longer, though.

In November, Russian forces claimed to gain ground around the eastern city of Avdiivka, where Western officials believe the Kremlin is trying to make a pincer move to encircle the town, the site of a major coke fuel and chemical plant. They’ve also set their sights on the important railway junction of Kupyansk.

“They just keep pushing these guys into a meat grinder to convey the sense that they have endless resources,” Hodges said. “They don’t have endless resources.”

For now, though, absent Western aid, Russia’s focus on eastern Ukraine could lead Kyiv to cede more ground.

“That’s very painful for us, because we pay thousands of lives to get every single kilometer,” Ustinova said.

“They are already taking more territory,” she added. “Look at the map.”

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usafphantom2 · 3 months

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18th March 1945. First flight of the Douglas AD/A-1 Skyraider attack aircraft. Rugged, long ranged and able to carry up to 8,000lbs of ordnance, it arrived too late for the Second World War. Skyraiders saw extensive use in Korea, and despite being gradually replaced by jets, continued into service in Vietnam.

Pictured:

1) Prototype XBT2D-1. The aircraft was optimised from the outset for ground attack, with a long loiter time, armour protection and the largest possible payload.

📷 historynet.com

2) An AD-4 Skyraider of (VA) 65 launches from the carrier Philippine Sea for a combat mission over Korea in 1951. It was during the Korean War that the Skyraider solidified its reputation as one of the finest attack and close air support aircraft ever built, though over 100 were lost in combat.

📷 history.navy.mil

3) A number of Skyraider variants were developed, including an Airborne Early Warning (AEW) platform. These were used by the Royal Navy before the arrival of the Fairey Gannet in 1960. The same AN/APS-20 radars from the Skyraiders were first used by their replacements, then on the Shackleton AEW.2 until 1991! In this photo, the first aircraft are being delivered in Glasgow, November 1951.

4) Although US Navy Skyraiders flew their last mission over Vietnam in early 1968, the ‘Spad’ continued in operation with the USAF until 1972, covering Search and Rescue missions. This aircraft, pictured in June 1970, is carrying a typical mixed load of gunpods, rockets and bombs in addition to the 4x20mm wing guns. Incredibly, Skyraiders shot down two MiG 17s, but 266 were lost, almost all to ground fire.

📷 armytimes.com

@JamieMctrusty via X

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reality-detective · 10 months

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The Russian amphibious Beriev Be-200 Altair aircraft designed for fire fighting, search and rescue and maritime patrol. 🤔

#pay attention #educate yourselves #educate yourself #knowledge is power #reeducate yourself #reeducate yourselves #think for yourselves #think about it #think for yourself #planes

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tomorrowusa · 21 days

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Pardon me for not shedding tears over the death of the misogynistic theocratic thug Ebrahim Raisi.

As a strong supporter of Ukraine, I note that Iran under Raisi has supplied Russia with Shahed drones which have murdered or maimed thousands of Ukrainians.

Of course Raisi, first and foremost, has repressed and killed countless Iranians over the span of his brutal career.

Iran’s hardline President Ebrahim Raisi — once seen as a potential successor to 85-year-old Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei — died after his helicopter crashed into trees in a mountainous northwestern region of the Islamic Republic on Sunday. The Iranian branch of the Red Crescent humanitarian network said on Monday its search and rescue teams had reached the crash site and “found no signs of the helicopter’s occupants being alive.” The discovery of the burned-out wreckage of Raisi’s helicopter among blackened trees — with seemingly only the tail surviving the crash — followed hours of searches in the fog-bound mountain valleys of Dizmar forest near the border with Azerbaijan. [ ... ] Raisi, 63, was a conservative cleric and former judiciary chief who was responsible for decades of vicious crackdowns against his own people’s aspirations for greater personal freedoms and democracy, arresting, torturing and executing tens of thousands of the Islamist regime’s opponents. Educated in the seminary city of Qom and dubbed “the butcher,” he was alleged to have been involved in the execution of thousands of political prisoners in the late 1980s, according to Iran’s opposition. As judiciary chief, he was also directly responsible for the wave of arrests and executions that followed massive anti-regime protests in 2019-2020. As president, he oversaw the iron-fisted repression of the “Women, Life, Freedom” movement that followed the death of 22-year-old Mahsa Amini. Tens of thousands were arrested, and the death toll is estimated at more than 500.

Raisi was a way bad person – even by the standards of the ruling theocratic mafia in Iran.

As for the helicopter crash that killed Raisi, look to Iran's terrible air safety record.

Iran's poor aviation safety record

The cause of the helicopter crash is not yet known - but Iran has a poor air transport safety record. This is at least partly the result of decades of US sanctions, which have severely weakened its aerial fleet. President Raisi was on board a Bell 212 helicopter, state news agencies said. The model was made in the US and could not have been sold to Iran since the 1979 revolution. Previous ministers of defence and transport, as well as commanders of Iran’s ground and air armed forces, have died in plane or helicopter crashes. When reformers led Iran's government, they aimed to modernise the country's fleet of aircraft by negotiating a deal with the West that would see sanctions lifted in return for limiting Iran's sensitive nuclear activities and allowing in international inspectors However, these efforts stalled when President Donald Trump withdrew from the deal and reimposed sanctions. Reformers were subsequently opposed and mocked by hardliners, who insisted that Iran could rely on its domestic industries and foreign allies to improve aviation safety.

Iran has been devoting more attention to building killer drones than to maintaining its own aircraft. The helicopter crash is poetic justice of sorts.

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