The Tehran Incident: The Night Fighter Jets Chased a Light and Their Weapons Went Dark
Shortly after midnight on 19 September 1976, the telephones in the control tower at Tehran's Mehrabad Airport began to ring without pause. The calls came from the northern districts of the Iranian capital, where residents standing on rooftops and balconies reported a brilliant light hanging over the city. They described it as flashing through changing colors and holding a position no landing aircraft could hold. The duty controller checked his boards. There was no scheduled traffic in that sector, and nothing on his display accounted for what the callers were describing.
The report climbed the chain of command until it reached General Yousefi, the assistant deputy commander of operations. His first reaction was that the callers were looking at a star and should go back to bed. The tower staff insisted otherwise, and Yousefi went outside to look for himself. What he saw over the mountains north of the city was, by his account, far larger and brighter than any star. At approximately 01:30 he ordered a fighter into the air.
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