The
1976 Iranian (Tehran) UFO
incident allegedly
involved a close encounter between two Iranian piloted
F-4s and a UFO.
The "incident"
began at approximately
12:30 a.m. September 19, 1976, when the Imperial (pre-revolution)
Iranian Air Force command post
began receiving reports of strange activity in the night sky
over Tehran. Some callers thought it to be a
brightly lit helicopter, others reported it as unidentified.
Unable to account
for the reports,
the command post contacted General Yousefi the assistant deputy
commander of operations. At first sceptical, the general contacted
Mehrabad International for confirmation before apparently seeing the
object in the night sky himself. At 0130 hours (local time) an F-4
Phantom
was
dispatched at his request from Shahrokhi Air Force Base to investigate.
Yaddi
Nazeri, the pilot of the jet, approached to approximately 46
kilometres before being forced to break off due to instrument and
communications failure; minutes later all instruments
regained full functionality. Nazeri later remembered thinking that the
object whatever it was, was from another planet, its technology far
beyond that of any earthly government.
At 0140 hours a
second F-4 took
to the air piloted by Lieutenant Parviz Jafari (later to become General
Jafari) and quickly closed on the UFO even acquiring a radar lock. At
46 kilometres the object matched the F-4’s speed forcing the jet to
keep
its distance, while the brilliant light which emanated from the UFO (it
was apparently visible from over 100 km away) made it difficult to
determine its size.
Suddenly a
smaller object detached
itself from the larger and streaked toward the F-4. Jafari believing he
was under attack tried to retaliate with an AIM-9 sidewinder only to be
faced (just like Nazeri) with a total loss of instrumentation, weapons
control and communications. Diving to escape, the pilot witnessed the
smaller object fall in behind him before suddenly turning and rejoining
its primary. The UFO apparently then left the area at speeds in
excess of Mach 3, the F-4’s instruments returning to normal with its
departure.
A number of
separate but related events then allegedly occurred:
A brightly lit
smaller object dropped from the primary upon its
departure, illuminating then landing in a dry lake bed.
Another
UFO was observed by the F-4 crews upon final approach to Mehrabad, this
time the object was cylindrical in shape with a steady light at each
end and a flashing light in the center.
The F-4s
experienced interference and communications failure while
landing at Mehrabad.
A commercial
airliner experienced interference and communications
failure while landing at Mehrabad.
Mehrabad
personnel also saw the tubular/cylindrical object, the tower
experiencing power and equipment failure as it over flew the airport.
Due
to the large number of visual sightings by highly trained observers
both military and civilian (amongst others two F-4 fighter pilots and
crew, air traffic controllers and an Iranian Air Force General) its
hard to dismiss the Iranian UFO Incident out of hand, add to this
radar confirmation of said visual sightings and the fact that three
separate aircraft experienced equipment failure at approximately the
same time and place and one has to accept that something strange was in
the skies above Iran the morning of September 19, 1976, the question
of course is what? [1]
The pilot of the
second F-4, Parviz
Jafari (now a general) stated on November 12, 2007, while attending a
Washington press conference that he fully believed he’d had a close
encounter with an alien spacecraft a statement in keeping with those of
the first F-4 pilot, Yaddi Nazeri.
General Nader
Yousefi, who
had ordered the two F-4s to intercept the object stated, "Because of
the experience I had on September 19, 1976, I believe there is
something up there. We just don't know what it is or where it came
from."
A document from
the American embassy in Morocco to the
State Department, alluded to reports of sightings received by
Moroccan police two or three hours after the
Iranian
Incident of a cylindrical object trailing sparks and according to an
unnamed embassy staffer, who claimed to have seen it himself, preparing
to land
Henry Kissinger,
then Secretary of State, responding with
his usual pragmatism and in a highly dismissive manner drew their
attention to the Condon Committee report, claiming it showed all UFOs
have a natural cause, “the object was probably a meteor or decaying
satellite.”
Other debunkers
have suggested a bright star, a
planet, mass hysteria, hallucination, pilot error, incompetence and
equipment failure.
[1] A
Defense Intelligence Agency (DIA) report distributed
to the highest levels of
other United States agencies, government, military and security called
the case a classic
which met all the criteria necessary for a valid study of the UFO
phenomenon.
