Buried in the Defense Intelligence Agency’s
archive in an unnamed file is one of the most
fascinating accounts of pilot interaction
with UFOs.
This document, sent to the CIA, NSA and White
House in 1976, details an encounter between
Iranian Air Force pilots and multiple bright,
flashing objects that performed impossible
maneuvers.
A review later declassified by the NSA shows
the pilots’ accounts were verified by a
high-ranking general, radio tower operators
and radar signatures.
These documents detail instrumentation failure
experienced by aircraft that approached the
objects, as well as physiological effects
experienced by the air crews.
The wealth of detail — and corroboration
— makes this one of the best-documented
military engagements with UFOs on record.
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The following is the full message U.S. officials
received after the event.
“This report forwards information concerning
the sighting of a UFO in Iran on 19, September
1976.
At about 12:30 a.m. the Imperial Iranian Air
Force command post received four telephone
calls from citizens living in the Shemiran area of Tehran saying
that they had seen strange objects in the
sky.
Some reported a kind of bird-like object while
others reported a helicopter with a light
on. There were no helicopters airborne at
that time.
The command post called B.G. Yousefi, Assistant
Deputy Commander of Operations. After he told
the citizens it was only stars and had talked
to the tower, he decided to look for himself.
He noticed an object in the sky similar to
a star, bigger and brighter — he decided
to scramble an F-4 from Shahrokhi Air Force
Base to investigate.
At 01:30 hours on the 19th, the F-4 took off
and proceeded to a point about 40 nautical
miles north of Tehran. Due to its brilliance,
the object was easily visible from 70 miles
away.
As the F-4 approached a range of 25 nautical
miles, he lost all instrumentation and communications.
He broke off the intercept and headed back
to Shahrokhi.
When the F-4 turned away from the object and
apparently was no longer a threat to it, the
aircraft regained all instrumentation and
communications.
At 01:40, a second F-4 was launched. The backseater
acquired a radar lock on at 27 nautical miles,
12 o’clock high position with the rate of
closure at 150 nautical miles per hour.
As the range decreased to 25 nautical miles,
the object moved away at a speed that was
visible on the radar scope and stayed at 25
nautical miles.
The size of the radar return was comparable
to that of a 707 tanker. The visual size of
the object was difficult to discern because
of its intense brilliance. The light that
it gave off has that of flashing strobe lights
arranged in a rectangular pattern and alternating
blue, green, red and orange in color.
The sequence of the lights was so fast that
all the colors could be seen at once.
The object and the pursuing F-4 continued
on a course to the South of Tehran when another
brightly lighted object, estimated to be one
half to one third the apparent size of the
Moon, came out of the original object.
This second object headed straight toward
the F-4 at a very fast rate of speed. The
pilot attempted to fire an AIM-9 missile at
the object but at that instant, his weapons
control panel went off and he lost all communications.
At this point the pilot initiated a turn and
negative G dive to get away. As he turned
the object fell in trail at what appeared
to be about 3 to 4 nautical miles. As he continued
in his turn away from the primary object,
the second object went to the inside of his
turn, then returned to the primary object
for a perfect rejoin.”
Did you catch that? Here we have a documented
account of an object splitting apart and rejoining
together.
Let’s continue.
“Shortly after the second object joined
up with the primary object, another object
appeared to come out of the other side of
the primary object, going straight down at
a great rate of speed. The F-4 crew had regained
communications and the weapons control panel,
and watched the object approach the ground
anticipating a large explosion.”
But that’s not what happened.
“This object appeared to come to rest gently
on the Earth and cast a very bright light
over an area of about 2 to 3 kilometers.
The one civil airliner that was approaching
during this same time experienced communications
failure in the same vicinity, but did not
report seeing anything.
While the F-4 was on a long final approach,
the crew noticed another cylinder-shaped object,
about the size of a Ford T-Bird, with bright
steady lights on each end and a flasher in
the middle. When queried the Tower stated
there was no other known traffic in the area.
During daylight, the F-4 crew was taken out
to the area in a helicopter where the object
apparently had landed. Nothing was noticed
at the spot where they thought it was, a dry
lake bed, but as they circled off to the West
of the area they picked up a very noticeable
beeper signal.
At the point where the return was the loudest
was a small house with a garden. They landed
and asked the people within if they had noticed
anything strange last night.
They talked about a loud noise and a very
bright light like lightning.”
End message.
It was later revealed that much of this information
came from the second F-4 pilot, Parviz Jafari.
Comments he made at the National Press Club
Conference in D.C. in 2007 added some more
details.
For one, he says he encountered four distinct
objects that separated from the main UFO.
Each had different shapes.
He also revealed the light he witnessed landing
on the ground was so bright, nearby sand was
visible to the human eye despite it being
night time.
So, what about that beeping transponder?
Some think it’s physical evidence left behind
from the object that landed. A report from
U.S. Lieutenant Colonel Olin Mooy,
however, notes that it could’ve been from
an American transport plane.
Unfortunately the public documents don’t
give us any more detail on this, despite it
being located near the farmhouse that witnessed
the object land.
An internal military newsletter shows the
U.S. Air Force was also interested. It restates
the case with the prompt:
“Sometime in his career, each pilot can
expect to encounter strange, unusual happenings
which will never be adequately or entirely
explained by logic…”
It was marked confidential before being released
in the ‘80s.
None of these files give any indication as
to what UFOs may be. But at least in this
case, the evidence from multiple high-level
sources suggests this couldn’t be explained
away by a trick of the eye or weather phenomena.
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