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IncidentTehran F-4 Incident (19 September 1976)

aka Tehran F-4 Incident (19 September 1976)

Two Iranian Imperial Air Force F-4 Phantoms scrambled to intercept a luminous object over Tehran; both lost weapons, communications, and instrumentation upon approach.

under-corroborated Reclassified from phenomenologically-open to under-corroborated on a 2026 adversarial re-audit. Everything extraordinary (detaching sub-objects, 707-sized return, weapons-panel failure, descending 'landing' light) reaches us only through the single same-week Mooy/DIA summary plus interviews recalled 4 months to 31 years later (incl. National Enquirer files), with no surviving radar tapes/maintenance logs/radiation results and a real internal discrepancy (memo's vertical 'landing' vs Jafari's later oblique descent). The genuine residuals (a Maccabee-corroborated radar lock; a tape-supported first-aircraft failure) are real but unverifiable on the hard points.
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status history (2)
2026-06-09 · unannotated → phenomenologically-open — initial annotation sweep (Epic J.F4)
2026-06-14 · phenomenologically-open → under-corroborated — adversarial re-audit of the strongest open instrumented cases — Everything extraordinary (detaching sub-objects, 707-sized return, weapons-panel failure, descending 'landing' light) reaches us only throug
▸ Deep dive — full timeline, named personnel, sensors, theory-by-theory analysis, and the conventional explanations weighed against the open questions →
An Imperial Iranian Air Force F-4 Phantom II — the aircraft type that engaged the Tehran object on 19 September 1976.
An Imperial Iranian Air Force F-4 Phantom II — the aircraft type that engaged the Tehran object on 19 September 1976. Wikipedia Commons · Public domain · IRIAF · 1982
An Iranian F-4E Phantom II — the variant flown by Lt. Jafari during the Tehran incident.
An Iranian F-4E Phantom II — the variant flown by Lt. Jafari during the Tehran incident. Wikipedia Commons · Public domain · IIAF · Unkn

At 00:30 local time on 19 September 1976, Tehran’s Mehrabad control tower began receiving calls from civilians reporting a bright object over the city. At 01:30 an F-4 from Shahrokhi Air Base was scrambled. As it approached, the pilot reported complete loss of instrumentation and UHF/intercom communications; he aborted, and the systems recovered. A second F-4 launched at 01:40 piloted by Maj. Parviz Jafari with weapons systems officer Lt. Jafari Damirian. As they approached the object at supersonic speed, a smaller luminous object emerged from the primary and headed for the F-4; Maj. Jafari attempted to launch an AIM-9 missile; the weapons control panel went dead. The incident is recorded in DIA case 6 846 0139 76, distributed within 24 hours to the White House, the Joint Chiefs, the CIA, the NSA, and the Secretary of State.

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Public-record items already documented about this subject. Folklore is labelled. Sources cited where the specificity warrants it.

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