Telephone calls after midnight
At about 12:30 a.m. on September 19, 1976, the Imperial Iranian Air Force command post in Tehran took four calls from residents of the Shemiran district, in the northern foothills. Some described “a kind of bird-like object,” others a helicopter with a light on. No helicopters were up. The duty officer phoned Brig. Gen. Yousefi, the assistant deputy commander of operations, who by the American account first “told the citizen it was only stars.” Then he went outside and looked. It was like a star, he decided, only bigger and brighter. At Mehrabad Airport, night supervisor Hossein Pirouzi had his binoculars on it from the tower. He later told an interviewer it looked rectangular, blue at both ends, with a red light running around the middle, and that it changed as he watched—“all yellow, like a star, but much bigger,” then “like a starfish.” The airport’s radar was down for maintenance. Yousefi ordered up a jet.
Sources: Routing and Transmittal Slip, DIA evaluation, and unredacted U.S. Defense Attaché reportJoint Chiefs of Staff report concerning the sighting of a UFO in Iran on 19 September 1976The Pentagon’s ‘Classic’ UFO CaseIranian Jet Case
The first Phantom turns away
An F-4 Phantom II left Shahrokhi Air Base at 1:30 a.m. and headed for a point about forty nautical miles north of the capital. “Due to its brilliance,” the U.S. defense attaché’s report says, “the object was easily visible from 70 miles away.” As the fighter closed to twenty-five nautical miles, it “lost all instrumentation and communications (UHF and intercom).” The pilot broke off and turned for home. Once the Phantom had turned away from the object “and apparently was no longer a threat to it,” everything came back.
Sources: Joint Chiefs of Staff report concerning the sighting of a UFO in Iran on 19 September 1976Routing and Transmittal Slip, DIA evaluation, and unredacted U.S. Defense Attaché report
A second crew finds a return
A second F-4 took off at 1:40. Its back-seater got a radar lock at twenty-seven nautical miles, twelve o’clock high, closing at 150 knots. At twenty-five miles the target began to move, holding the gap. The return on the scope was “comparable to that of a 707 tanker.” Out the windscreen there was no shape to see, only light: its visual size “was difficult to discern because of its intense brilliance.” What the crew could make out was a pattern—“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.”
Sources: Joint Chiefs of Staff report concerning the sighting of a UFO in Iran on 19 September 1976Routing and Transmittal Slip, DIA evaluation, and unredacted U.S. Defense Attaché report
The light that came toward them
They chased it south of Tehran. Then a second object, “estimated to be one half to one third the apparent size of the moon,” came out of the first and headed straight for the Phantom “at a very fast rate of speed.” The pilot went to fire an AIM-9 Sidewinder at it, the report says, “but at that instant his weapons control panel went off and he lost all communications (UHF and interphone).” He threw the jet into a turn and a negative-G dive. The bright object fell in behind him at three or four miles, cut across the inside of his turn, and then “returned to the primary object for a perfect rejoin”—a pilot’s term for one aircraft sliding neatly back into formation with another. The radios and the weapons panel came back on.
Sources: Joint Chiefs of Staff report concerning the sighting of a UFO in Iran on 19 September 1976Routing and Transmittal Slip, DIA evaluation, and unredacted U.S. Defense Attaché report
A descent toward the dark ground
Almost at once another object came out of the far side of the big light and went straight down “at a great rate of speed.” The crew braced for an explosion. Instead it seemed to settle gently onto the desert floor and “cast a very bright light over an area of about 2-3 kilometers.” In Pirouzi’s memory the pilot radioed that it was like daytime down there. The Phantom dropped from 26,000 to 15,000 feet to mark the spot, and the crew found they “had some difficulty in adjusting their night visibility for landing.” Circling Mehrabad, they lost their UHF every time they passed through one particular bearing; a civil airliner inbound at the same time lost its radio as well, and saw nothing. On final approach the back-seater spotted one more thing coming up behind them: a cylinder about the size of a T-33 jet trainer, a steady light at each end and a flasher in the middle. The tower saw nothing until the pilot told them where to look—between the mountains and the refinery—and then they had it too.
Sources: Joint Chiefs of Staff report concerning the sighting of a UFO in Iran on 19 September 1976Routing and Transmittal Slip, DIA evaluation, and unredacted U.S. Defense Attaché reportThe Pentagon’s ‘Classic’ UFO Case
Daylight finds a beeping signal
After sunrise the second crew went out by helicopter to the dry lake bed where the light had come down. There was nothing there. But as they circled off to the west they picked up “a very noticeable beeper signal,” and followed it to “a small house with a garden.” The people inside, asked whether anything strange had happened in the night, “talked about a loud noise and a very bright light like lightening.” The American report ends by noting that the area and the aircraft were being checked for radiation and that more information would follow. None ever has. Pirouzi said airline crews had been reporting an emergency locator beacon before the jets were ever launched; skeptic Brian Dunning has written that the debriefing officer identified the signal as the kind of beacon U.S. C-141 transports carried, and sometimes shed, over those mountains. That detail is not in the report.
Sources: Joint Chiefs of Staff report concerning the sighting of a UFO in Iran on 19 September 1976Routing and Transmittal Slip, DIA evaluation, and unredacted U.S. Defense Attaché reportThe Pentagon’s ‘Classic’ UFO CaseThe Tehran 1976 UFOTehran, September 18, 1976
What Tehran read over breakfast
Iran’s English-language papers had the story within a day, and they had something the Americans never did: what was said to be the tower tape. The Tehran Journal quoted a twenty-three-year-old Lieutenant Jafari radioing, “Something is coming at me from behind. It is 15 miles away… now 10 miles… now five miles,” and describing an object half the size of the moon, throwing violet, orange, and white light three times as strong as moonlight. The papers sent the chase east toward the Afghan border at twice the speed of sound. On September 21 Kayhan International struck back with “And now the REAL story about that ‘UFO,’” in which an unnamed official denied that anything had chased the jets, that any electronics had failed, or that anyone had tried to fire. The pilot’s recorded words, the paper conceded, left the official frankly puzzled. A few months later the air force’s deputy commander, Lt. Gen. Abdullah Azarbarzin, told the National Enquirer, “We gave all the information to the U.S.”
Sources: Iranian Jet CaseThe Pentagon’s ‘Classic’ UFO CaseCommentary on Philip J. Klass’s analysis of the Tehran case
The cable travels through Washington
The American record exists because a U.S. Air Force officer was in the room. Lt. Col. Olin Mooy, executive officer of the American military advisory group in Tehran, sat in on the second crew’s debriefing and wrote it up; the defense attaché, Col. Frank McKenzie, sent Mooy’s text to Washington nearly word for word. “I didn’t talk to the Iranian pilots,” McKenzie later admitted to reporter Bob Pratt. The message was routed to the Joint Chiefs, the State Department, the CIA, the NSA, the White House, and commands across Europe and the Middle East—routine distribution, by one later account, for traffic from that part of the world. At the Defense Intelligence Agency an analyst filled out an evaluation form, ticked the boxes for “Confirmed by other sources” and high value, and wrote: “An outstanding report. This case is a classic which meets all the criteria necessary for a valid study of the UFO phenomenon.” He listed them: multiple witnesses in different places, credible ones—“an air force general, qualified aircrews, and experienced tower operators”—radar confirmation, the same electromagnetic effects in three separate aircraft, the loss of night vision, and “an inordinate amount of maneuverability.” Pratt identified the analyst as Maj. Roland Evans, who told him of the object, “He actually turned them off. He made them completely useless.” A copy leaked to the civilian group NICAP within weeks. A Berlin schoolteacher named Charles Huffer pried the message loose officially under the Freedom of Information Act in August 1977, and the Enquirer’s panel named Tehran the most scientifically valuable case of the year; Iran’s ambassador accepted the $5,000 on the crews’ behalf.
Sources: Routing and Transmittal Slip, DIA evaluation, and unredacted U.S. Defense Attaché reportRouting and Transmittal Slip, DIA summary, and U.S. Defense Attaché reportThe Pentagon’s ‘Classic’ UFO CaseThe U.S. Government & the Iran CaseIranian Air Force jets scrambledCommentary on Philip J. Klass’s analysis of the Tehran case
Jafari’s later account
Parviz Jafari retired from the Iranian Air Force as a general, and in November 2007 he stood at the National Press Club in Washington to say that he had been the pilot of the second jet, and a squadron commander at the time. The object, he said, was “flashing with intense red, green, orange and blue light so bright that I was not able to see its body.” In his telling, four smaller objects came out of it over the course of the chase. When the first one came at him, “I thought it was a missile”; he tried to launch his own, “my missile panel went out,” and the radio turned to garble. The one that landed lit the ground so brightly that he could see the sand. And he remembered the debriefing: “an American colonel took notes, but after it was over I could not find him to talk with.”
Sources: Statement of Gen. Parviz Jafari (Ret.), National Press Club
Jupiter, meteors, and unreliable electronics
Philip J. Klass went after the case in 1983 by pulling on its loosest thread: the newspaper tape, in which the first jet reports no electrical failure at all. That left one aircraft with trouble, and Klass found American contractors who said that particular F-4 had a history of it. The base’s electrical shop was “notorious for poor performance,” he wrote, and only that aircraft was briefly quarantined afterward; Iranian technicians found static in one radio, and a Westinghouse man was called in a month later to adjust the radar. The crew had been “awakened out of a sound sleep,” were “clearly ‘rattled,’” and tried to fire a missile with a range of a couple of miles at a target their own radar put twenty-five miles away. Jupiter was brilliant in the sky that night, and two or three minor meteor showers were active—enough, on this reading, for one persistent light and several fast ones. Dunning adds that Shahrokhi’s pilots never flew at night. Against that, Bruce Maccabee reports that Westinghouse engineers traced serial numbers through the avionics and found nothing swapped.
Sources: Commentary on Philip J. Klass’s analysis of the Tehran caseThe Tehran 1976 UFOIranian Jet Case
The light that turned them off
Nobody who took part ever changed his story. The general saw something too bright to be a star; the controller saw a starfish; two crews in the Shah’s front-line fighter, flying an hour apart, each reported their aircraft going dead at about the same distance from the same light and coming back to life when they turned away. If it was Jupiter, a planet beat two Phantoms. If the second jet was simply a lemon, what happened to the first—and to the airliner? Where are the radiation results the cable promised? And what, if anything, did the people in the small house with the garden find in the morning?
Sources: Joint Chiefs of Staff report concerning the sighting of a UFO in Iran on 19 September 1976Routing and Transmittal Slip, DIA evaluation, and unredacted U.S. Defense Attaché reportThe Pentagon’s ‘Classic’ UFO Case
What the official message establishes
The declassified message shows that the U.S. defense attaché’s office received and circulated, within days, an account of two F-4 intercepts, a radar lock, temporary systems failures, secondary lights, and a daylight search. It is one step removed from the witnesses: Mooy’s notes of one crew’s debriefing, passed on by an attaché who said he took some of his information from the newspapers. It contains no sensor data and no transcript.
Sources: Joint Chiefs of Staff report concerning the sighting of a UFO in Iran on 19 September 1976The Pentagon’s ‘Classic’ UFO CaseCommentary on Philip J. Klass’s analysis of the Tehran case
Who was flying?
The cable names no aircrew, and the later sources cannot agree. The Tehran Journal in 1976 put Lieutenant Jafari in the first jet; NICAP’s newsletter that November put him in the second; Jafari in 2007 said the second. Pratt, citing Mooy’s memorandum, gives the debriefed second crew as Lieutenants Jalal Damirian and Hossein Shokry. Other accounts name Yaddi Nazeri and a Captain Azizkhani as the first pilot. The Iranian and American versions also differ on when the calls began, where the first chase went, and whether the first aircraft lost anything at all.
Sources: Iranian Jet CaseIranian Air Force jets scrambledStatement of Gen. Parviz Jafari (Ret.), National Press ClubThe Pentagon’s ‘Classic’ UFO Case
What later sources add
Interviews by the National Enquirer’s stringers, Pratt, Maccabee, Klass, and Dunning supply the names, the tower’s view, the contractors’ gossip, and the maintenance history. Their conclusions conflict, particularly over the second F-4’s reliability, and no Iranian maintenance log, radar recording, or inquiry report has ever been published.
Sources: The Pentagon’s ‘Classic’ UFO CaseIranian Jet CaseCommentary on Philip J. Klass’s analysis of the Tehran caseThe Tehran 1976 UFO
Secret is not the same as solved
The cable was classified Confidential; Mooy’s own memorandum, Klass noted, was not classified at all. The long routing list shows where the paper went, not that anyone acted on it. The DIA evaluation is one analyst’s judgment of the report’s quality, and its claim of radar confirmation refers to the fighter’s own radar, since Mehrabad’s was switched off.
Sources: Routing and Transmittal Slip, DIA evaluation, and unredacted U.S. Defense Attaché reportThe U.S. Government & the Iran CaseCommentary on Philip J. Klass’s analysis of the Tehran case
Classification
This file is classified as unresolved in the public record. Civilian calls led to two intercepts whose crews reported lights, a radar contact, and equipment failures. The public record lacks raw radar data, maintenance records, the promised radiation results, photographs, or debris. The astronomical and mechanical explanations are each plausible for a part of the night; none has been shown to cover all of it.
Sources: Joint Chiefs of Staff report concerning the sighting of a UFO in Iran on 19 September 1976The Tehran 1976 UFOCommentary on Philip J. Klass’s analysis of the Tehran case
- 19 SEP 1976 · ABOUT 12:30 AM
Residents of Tehran’s Shemiran district report a brilliant airborne light; Brig. Gen. Yousefi and Mehrabad tower supervisor Hossein Pirouzi see it for themselves.
- 19 SEP · 1:30 AM
The first F-4 launches from Shahrokhi Air Base and reports losing instruments and communications 25 nautical miles from the light before turning away.
- 19 SEP · 1:40 AM
The second F-4 launches. Its crew reports a radar lock, strobing colored lights, a smaller object coming at them, and the loss of weapons control and communications.
- 19 SEP · BEFORE DAWN
The second crew watches a light descend to the desert and illuminate the ground, reports further radio interference near Mehrabad, and lands.
- 19 SEP · DAYLIGHT
A helicopter search finds nothing at the dry lake bed but picks up a beeper signal near a house to the west.
- 20–21 SEP 1976
The Tehran Journal and Kayhan International publish the story, tower-tape excerpts, and an official’s denials.
- LATE SEP 1976
Col. Frank McKenzie’s message, based on Lt. Col. Olin Mooy’s debriefing notes, is relayed through Joint Chiefs, diplomatic, intelligence, and military channels.
- 12 OCT 1976
A Defense Intelligence Agency evaluation calls it “an outstanding report” and a classic case.
- NOV 1976
NICAP publishes a leaked copy of the report in the UFO Investigator.
- 31 AUG 1977
The three-page message is officially released to Charles Huffer on Freedom of Information Act appeal.
- OCT 1978
The U.S. Air Force Security Service’s MIJI Quarterly publishes “Now You See It, Now You Don’t,” declassified in 1981.
- 12 NOV 2007
Retired Gen. Parviz Jafari recounts the second intercept at the National Press Club in Washington, D.C.
Sources & interviews
Joint Chiefs of Staff report concerning the sighting of a UFO in Iran on 19 September 1976U.S. Defense Attaché Office, Tehran · Col. Frank B. McKenzie · September 1976 · NSA FOIA releaseRouting and Transmittal Slip, DIA evaluation, and unredacted U.S. Defense Attaché reportDefense Intelligence Agency · October 12, 1976, evaluation; routing slip December 8, 1978 · Scan hosted by NICAPRouting and Transmittal Slip, DIA summary, and U.S. Defense Attaché reportDefense Intelligence Agency · Declassified records hosted by NSAIranian Air Force jets scrambledNICAP · UFO Investigator · November 1976 · First U.S. publication of the leaked report“Now You See It, Now You Don’t”Capt. Henry S. Shields, U.S. Air Force · MIJI Quarterly · October 1978 · NSA FOIA releaseFirst page of “Now You See It, Now You Don’t”Capt. Henry S. Shields, United States Air Force · Public domain via Wikimedia CommonsThe U.S. Government & the Iran CaseInternational UFO Reporter · Copy released by NSAThe Pentagon’s ‘Classic’ UFO CaseBob Pratt · Interviews with U.S. and Iranian officers, 1977–1979 · Via the Internet ArchiveCommentary on Philip J. Klass’s analysis of the Tehran caseMartin Shough · NARCAP Technical Report 6, appendix · Page-cited quotations from UFOs: The Public Deceived (1983)Iranian Jet CaseBruce Maccabee · 2006 reconstruction using Tehran press, witness, and technician interviews · NICAP archiveStatement of Gen. Parviz Jafari (Ret.), National Press ClubCoalition for Freedom of Information · November 12, 2007 · Via the Internet ArchiveThe Tehran 1976 UFOBrian Dunning · Skeptoid #315 · June 19, 2012 · Skeptical analysisTehran, September 18, 1976Kevin Randle · A Different Perspective · December 2016Tehran F-4 incident document and research directoryNICAP and Project 1947 · RADCAT case directory1976 Tehran UFO incidentWikipedia · Orientation and reference trail · Consulted September 16, 2026Spotted an error, or know a better source? Write to hello@uap.fun.
Connected files
The Levelland NightThe same story told from the driver’s seat: engines and lights that died as a glow came near and recovered when it left.The Lights Beside Flight 1628Ten years on, Philip Klass offered a 747 crew over Alaska the same culprit he offered here: Jupiter.The Nimitz EncounterAnother fighter crew vectored onto a contact that seemed to react to their approach.The Belgian UFO WaveF-16s, radar lock-ons, and the question of what an air force’s instruments had really locked onto.Leslie KeanHer Coalition for Freedom of Information published Jafari’s 2007 Washington statement.Discuss this case
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