1976 Tehran UFO incident
From the UAP Encyclopedia, the open encyclopedia of UFO and UAP history · 🛸 Case
Contents 4
| Type | Case |
|---|---|
| Also known as | Tehran UFO incident, Tehran incident |
The 1976 Tehran UFO incident was a radar and visual sighting over Tehran, Iran, on the night of 18–19 September 1976, during which two Imperial Iranian Air Force F-4 Phantom II jets were sent to intercept a bright unidentified light and reported instrument, communication and weapons failures. A detailed U.S. Defense Intelligence Agency report on the event made it one of the most cited military UFO cases.[1][2]
The sighting
Shortly after midnight, air traffic controller Hossein Pirouzi received calls from several civilians about a bright object over the Shemiran district of Tehran. He saw it himself and reported it to the Imperial Iranian Air Force, whose commander authorised an interception.[1]
The first F-4, flown by Lt. Yadollah Nazeri, approached to about 25 nautical miles before losing its instruments and radio communications; they returned when he turned back. A second F-4, flown by Maj. Parviz Jafari with weapons officer Lt. Jalal Damirian, obtained a radar lock at about 27 nautical miles. As Jafari approached, he reported that his communications failed, and when he tried to fire an AIM-9 missile at a smaller object that appeared to come toward him, his weapons control panel lost power. He said bright objects separated from the main light and one appeared to descend toward the ground. A nearby airliner also reported radio problems.[1][3]
The next day Jafari and Damirian searched the area where an object had seemed to land by helicopter but found nothing, although a beeping signal was detected and residents reported a loud noise and flash.[1]
U.S. reports
A report of the incident reached the U.S. Joint Chiefs of Staff the same day, and a memo by a U.S. Air Force officer, Col. Mooy, was circulated within the Defense Intelligence Agency. A DIA evaluation described the report as "outstanding", noting that the object was seen by multiple credible witnesses from different locations, confirmed on radar, and associated with equipment failures. These documents were later released under the Freedom of Information Act.[1][4]
Later statements and explanations
Jafari, who rose to the rank of general, described the event at a 2007 press conference at the National Press Club in Washington, D.C. Skeptic Philip Klass argued that the pilots first saw the planet Jupiter, that the failures resulted from equipment problems on an aircraft with a history of electrical faults, and that the jets' radar may have been in a mode prone to errors; space writer James Oberg also pointed to Jupiter. Brian Dunning noted that the night fell during meteor showers and that the beeping signal came from a transponder that had fallen from a U.S. transport aircraft.[1][5]
References
- 1976 Tehran UFO incident — Wikipedia · en.wikipedia.org · archived copy
- "The U.S. Government & The Iran Case", NSA (declassified) · nsa.gov · archived copy
- "Now you see it, now you don't!", USAF MIJI Quarterly (declassified) · media.defense.gov · archived copy
- Joint Chiefs of Staff report concerning the sighting of a UFO in Iran on 19 September 1976 (NSA release) · nsa.gov · archived copy
- Brian Dunning, "The Tehran 1976 UFO", Skeptoid #315 · skeptoid.com · archived copy
This page was last edited on 31 October 2026. Articles are written in our own words from the sources listed under References; disputed claims are attributed to the people who made them.
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