Declassified Defense Intelligence Agency documents released
under the Freedom of Information Act reveal that on 19 September,
1976, an unusual incident occurred over Tehran, Iran.
At about 0030 hours, the Imperial Iranian Air Force command
post at Tehran received four telephone reports from citizens
in the Shemiran (north of Tehran). Some of the callers reported
seeing a bird-like object in the sky, while others reported
a helicopter with a bright light. When the command post found
that there were no helicopters airborne at that time, they called
General Yousefi, assistant deputy commander of operations. General
Yousefi at first said the object was only a star, but after
talking to the tower at Mehrabad Airport, he looked for himself
and saw a very bright object larger than a star. At that point
he decided to scramble one F-4 Phantom jet from Shahrokhi Air
Force Base in Hamadan. At 0130 hours, the F-4 took off and proceeded
to a point 40 nautical miles north of Tehran. It was noted that
the object was of such brilliance that it could be seen up to
70 miles away. When the F-4 came to within about 25 nautical
miles of the object, the jet suddenly lost all instrumentation
and communications. The pilot broke off the intercept and turned
away. When the F-4 had turned back toward Shahrokhi, the aircraft
regained instrumentation and communication. At 0140 hours, second
F-4 was scrambled, piloted by Lieutenant Jafari and it acquired
a radar lock on the object at 27 nautical miles range. The radar
signature of the UFO resembled to that of Boeing 707 aircraft.
Closing on the object at 150 nautical miles per hour. At a range
of 25 nautical miles, the object began to move, keeping a steady
distance of 25 nautical miles from the F-4.The size of the object
was difficult to determine due to its intense brilliance. The
lights of the object were alternating blue, green, red, and
orange, and were arranged in a square pattern. The lights flashed
in sequence, but the flashing was so rapid that they all could
be seen at once.
As the
object and the F-4 continued on a southerly path, a smaller
second object detached itself from the first and advanced
on the F-4 at a high rate of speed. Lieutenant Jafari thinking
to be under attack, he launch an AIM-9 sidewinder missile,
but he suddenly lost all instrumentation, including weapons
control, and all communication. The F-4 pilot then instituted
a turn and a negative G dive as evasive action. The object
fell in behind him at about 3 to 4 nautical miles distance
for a short time, then turned and rejoined the primary object.
Once again,
as soon as the F-4 had turned away, instrumentation and communications
were regained. The F-4 crew then saw another brightly lit object
detach itself from the other side of the primary object and
drop straight down at a high rate of speed. The F-4 crew expected
it to impact the ground and explode, but it came to rest gently.
The F-4 crew then overflew the site at a decreased altitude
and marked the position of the light's touchdown. Then they
landed at Mehrabad, noting that each time they passed through
a magnetic bearing of 150 degrees from Mehrabad, they experienced
interference and experienced communications failure. A civilian
airliner that was approaching Mehrabad experienced a loss of
communications at the same position relative to Mehrabad. As
the F-4 was on final approach, they sighted yet another object,
cylinder-shaped, with bright, steady lights on each end and
a flashing light in the middle. Mehrabad tower reported no other
aircraft in the area, but tower personnel were able to see the
object when given direction by the F-4 pilot.
The next day, the F-4 crew flew out in a helicopter to the site
where they had seen the smaller object land. In the daylight,
it was determined to be a dry lake bed, but no traces could
be seen. They then circled the area to the west and picked up
a noticeable "beeper" signal. The signal was loudest
near a small house, so they landed and questioned the occupants
of the house about any unusual events of the previous night.
They reported a loud noise and a bright light like lightning.
Further investigation of the landing site, including radiation
testing of the area was apparently done, but the results were
never made public. Since this event occurred before the fall
of the Shah, any records in Tehran itself may be lost.
The Defense
Intelligence Agency itself called this report:
An outstanding report. This case is a classic which meets
all the criteria necessary for a valid study of the UFO phenomenon...
One of
the most interesting things about this event is that it was
apparently detected by a military spy satellite. This satellite,
the DSP-1, was launched to warn of ballistic missile launches
by detecting infrared heat sources. It was used to detect
SCUD missile launches during Desert Storm. An analysis of
computer printouts from DSP-1 by researchers Lee Graham and
Ron Reghr, of Aero-Jet in California, shows that it definitely
detected an infrared anomaly over Tehran at the time of the
UFO event reported above.
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