1976: Tehran, Iran.

Greetings. The year 1976 brought an interesting historical UFO case, one that has remained controversial to this day.

The Tehran UFO Incident was a radar/visual sighting of an unidentified flying object in the night skies over Tehran, the capital of Iran. During the events in question, two Imperial Iranian Air Force F-4 Phantom II jet interceptors reported losing instrumentation and communication capabilities as they approached the unknown, unidentified object. Upon withdrawal from the unknown, all of the functions of the two aircraft returned to normal. One of the aircraft also reported a temporary weapons systems failure while the crew was preparing to open fire on the unknown. 

In the early hours of the 19th of September in 1976, a shining object was reported in the skies above Tehran by at least four civilians. Lieutenant Yaddi Nazeri of the Imperial Iranian Air Force (IIAF,) plus a backseat weapons officer, were dispatched in an F-4 Phantom II jet interceptor to investigate. Once Nazeri reached Tehran, he reported instrument failure and loss of communications, so they returned to base, reporting that his instruments resumed normal operations once he did so.

Major Parviz Jafari, an IIAF squadron commander, along with First Lieutenant Jalal Damirian, weapons officer, were dispatched in a second F-4 Phantom II to intercept the unidentified object. Major Jafari acquired a radar lock on an object at a range of approximately 50 kilometers, its apparent size comparable to a Boeing KC-135 Stratotanker. As he approached the object, which Jafari described as "flashing with intense red, green, orange and blue lights so bright that I was not able to see its body," his aircraft's communications system abruptly shut off. As he attempted to fire an AIM-9 Sidewinder infrared guided missile, Jafari's equipment shut down and only resumed normal operations after his jet moved away from the object.

Jafari, pictured above, later testified that he was startled by "a round object which came out of the primary object and started coming straight toward me at a high rate of speed, almost as if it were a missile," but as he attempted to fire at the incoming, "Suddenly, nothing was working. The weapons control panel was out, and I lost all the instruments, and the radio." When he could report to air traffic control, Jafari was instructed to return to base. As he did so, Jafari looked to his left and saw "the primary, diamond-shaped thing up there, and another bright object came out of it and headed directly toward the ground." Expecting an explosion that never occurred, he claimed "It seemed to slow down and land gently on the ground, radiating a high bright light." The next morning, Jafari and Damirian flew by helicopter to the location where they thought the light had impacted the ground, ultimately finding nothing. Locals only reported hearing a loud noise and a bright flash of light during the night.

According to skeptical journalist Philip J. Klass, what the pilots initially witnessed was likely an astronomical body, possibly Jupiter, an explanation supported by aerospace researcher James Oberg. Klass wrote that "pilot incompetence and equipment malfunction likely accounted for the reported equipment failures." According to Klass, the Westinghouse technician at Shahrokhi Airbase stated that only the first F-4 reported equipment failure, and that the aircraft in question was well-known for equipment failures with a long history of electrical outages, having been repaired just a few weeks prior to the alleged incident. Klass cites a McDonnell Douglas repair supervisor's opinion that the F-4's radar could have been in "manual track" mode, causing an erroneous interpretation of the radar lock.

According to Martin Bridgstock of Griffith University: "Stripped of details, a couple of F-4 jets from the Iranian airforce were scrambled to investigate some sightings of lights in the sky. Reports vary, but at least one jet suffered grave electrical failures, tried to fire a missile at something and had something fired at it. A nearby jet airliner also suffered radio failure."

Bridgstock criticized the work of civilian UFO investigators as "not a reliable account of the Iran UFO incident" and summed up Klass' conclusions, and I quote: "Klass found that only one aircraft had suffered electrical malfunctions, not two. What is more, that plane had had a history of unexplained electrical faults, and the electrical workshop responsible for it was notorious for poor performance. In this context, a temporary electrical malfunction can hardly be characterised as mysterious. He also points out that the aircrews at the time were tired and rattled, and could have mistaken stars or meteors for UFOs and missiles. In addition, Klass points out that radio faults on airliners are not unknown, and that is why they carry backup radio sets."

Regarding one pilot's report of "bright objects" that "came at him, and that shot straight down into the ground," Brian Dunning, the host and creator of the "Skeptoid Podcast," observed that the 19th of September, the day of the unexplained incident, was the height of two annual meteor showers, the Gamma Piscids and the Southern Piscids and the tail of the Eta Draconids shower, so observation of falling objects or odd lights would not have been unusual, in fact, such observations were to be expected. 

According to Dunning, "Once we look at all the story's elements without the presumption of an alien spaceship, the only thing unusual about the Tehran 1976 UFO case is that planes were chasing celestial objects and had equipment failures. There have been many cases where planes had equipment failures, and there have been many cases where planes misidentified celestial objects. Once in a while, both will happen on the same flight." Dunning criticized UFO investigators and UFO-themed television shows like "Sightings" for describing all the events related to the incident "from the context of a presumption that the light was a hostile and intelligently guided alien spacecraft." His points are well taken. 

As with the vast majority of historical UFO accounts, this case is wanting of non-anecdotal information, and is lacking any tangible evidence which would offer the opportunity for further investigations. 

Thank you for your time and consideration.