radar-lock (13. 812)

Described as one of the more credible incidents in ufologists due to the level or documentation and the number and professional status of witnesses of the close encounter, on this day in 1976 many civilians and military personnel record visual and radar sightings of an unidentified flying object over Tehran. Dispatched to investigate, a pair of Imperial Persian Airforce F-4 Phantom II interceptors registered a loss of instrumentation and communication upon approaching the illumination, bar-like in shape and with small red, green and blue lights circling the midsection, moving at an relative speed of over Mach 2, which was restored after withdrawing. The crew were interviewed following the incident with the report provided to the US airforce, the Pahlavi government retaining close defence ties with the American government, eager to monitor potential Soviet incursions, until its overthrow in 1979 with the Islamic Revolution. Contemporary analysis by the US Defence Intelligence Agency rather paternally described the report as an exemplary classic and meeting all the criteria for further study, though critics argued that the pilots were likely chasing an astronomical body, probably Jupiter or a meteor shower, and the American supplied Westinghouse jets were notorious for such electronic equipment failures. The scrambling of aircraft was the subject of an Iranian film as well as featured on the 1990s US series Sightings, covering news of the paranormal.