Read this case a long time ago, found it very intriguing.
This occured on September 18th 1976 when an unidentified "aircraft flew into restricted airspace of Tehran, Iran. Reports started coming in from the
general public about an strange object in the night sky. Initial reports from citizens described the object as "bird like", "a bright light" and
"A helicopter with brigth light". The duty officer that took the calls that night had no procedure in which to act on with these reports, so the
Assistant Deputy Commander of Operations, B.G Yousefi apparetly told the concerned citizens that they were most probably observing a star. Still
intrigued himself, he contacted Air Traffic Control who confirmed the reports, which led him to investigate the "UFO" for himself. Unfortunantly
that night, the radar was "conveniently" out of service due to maintenance, so it is not known if the object was visible on ground radar
After investigating deeper, with more calls coming in and seeing the sources of some of these calls, he actually went to view the object himself. When
he saw the object, he knew instantly that it was not something celestial of nature, nor was it an Iranian airforce aircraft and he scrambled an
American made F-4 Phantom Fighter Jet to intercept the object (see plane details on below link)
en.wikipedia.org...
ATC's (Hossain Pirouzi) own description of object:
Suddenly, it appeared to disappear and then suddenly re-appear a mile further on just seconds later. I could see it this time as bright as the
sun. It was all yellow, like a star, but much bigger. Then it appeared to me to be like a starfish. I can't be sure of the colors but there were
blue, orange, red and yellow lights
The F-4 left the runway at 01:30am, towards the object which was due north of Tehran approximately 70 miles away. Yousefi was giving instruction over
to the pilot through Pirouzi during the incident, the initial instructions were to get close and describe its shape, but nothing else. The pilot
reported that the object was rectangular shaped.
Soon after this he radioed in again reporting that he was travelling at a speed of Mach Two and could not keep up with the object. Yousefi told him to
fly back towards Tehran. On his way back, the object suddenly appeared over Tehran again somehow beating the fighter back. The pilot resumed the
chase, but this time everytime he got close to the object, his instruments went haywire and he heard "emergency signals" (indicate a aircraft in
distress, more later). At this time however, his engines were functioning as normal. Eventually the pilot reported his fuel was running low and he was
ordered to land
A second F-4 was scrambled as the first pilot landed. When this pilot closed in, he to lost all navigation instruments and radio. Prior to this, the
F-4 got a return on the radar which indicating the size of the UFO was similar to that of a 707 jet.
After a brief chase, the pilot reported he could not keep up with the object and decided to return to base. As he swung around, the object divided
into 2 pieces and a small illuminated object chased the F-4. The pilot flew directly over the tower in Tehran, with the small object 500ft above and
behind him. This was also witnessed from the ground. As suddenly as it had came, the light returned back to the main object. (Some reports indicate
the pilot tried to fire an AIM-9 missile at the object, but his weapon control went offline)
As the pilot flew back to Tehran, he reported that the smaller object had again left the large piece and settled on the ground south east of Tehran,
with the main object orbiting overhead. He also reported that the light was so intense he could see the terrain on the ground
Eventually the object left the area at around 04:00am
Additonally, the next morning this occured:
Shortly after dawn on September 19, the F-4 crew boarded a helicopter to return to the site of the UFO landing. No trace of the landing was found
at the site (a dry lakebed), but the area is being checked for possible changes in radiation levels. The helicopter left the area and circled off to
the west. As they were leaving the site, the helicopter radio started picking up a very noticeable beeper signal. Near the point where the signal was
being received most clearly, the crew noticed an isolated farm house. They landed and asked the resident if he had noticed anything unusual the night
before. The farmer replied that he had noticed a loud sound and a very bright light in the area of the landing site.
Also a classified message from the US embassy in Tehran was sent to Washington describing the incident. It remained classified for over a year before
being released. The following document has what was written in those.
www.ufoevidence.org...
Links
www.cohenufo.org...
www.ufoevidence.org...
ufos.about.com...
[edit on 1/1/2009 by OzWeatherman]