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Flying Saucer Fever
By John Greenewald, Jr.
FATE :: July 2004
Recently, it seems we are seeing more and more coverage of UFO sightings throughout the world. In an April 29 article, MSNBC used a phrase we rarely see in the media: “Flying saucer fever…”
The major networks were featuring the recent events over Tehran, Iran, in April 2004. Didn’t hear about it? Stories like this do not stay long in the news, and it was quickly followed by the Mexico military UFO story, which broke in May 2004. However, much could be said about this recent flap of sightings, and moreover of the history of sightings in the region dating back to the infamous 1976 Iran incident.
The recent sightings started on the night of April 12, 2004, with the detection of a “light in the sky” by multiple witnesses, including a journalist from Irna News. The story started surfacing around Iran, while other sightings were taking place in cities such as the northwestern city of Azad Shahr (north Iran), Poldokhtar (west Iran), Saris (north Iran), Ardabil (northwest Iran), and Gonbade Kavoos (northeast). It was apparent this was not a fluke sighting by one or two citizens, but a phenomenon that was seen by “thousands” of witnesses, according to newspapers in Iran.
Most significant, according to Irna News, were the sightings that occurred on April 27, in which people from eight cities came running into the streets to see these UFOs buzzing overhead. These sightings included some of flying discs. It was reported that some of the UFOs had smaller looking wings, which spewed out red, green, blue, and purple rays.
With these specific details coming out, many have speculated that the Iranian government has become more open towards the UFO phenomenon, but that is not necessarily true. As with the U.S. media and government alike, there was also a fair share of rebuttal to the sightings. Sa’dollah Nasiri-Qeydari, the head of the Astronomical Society of Iran, told the wire services he felt the UFO sightings were “unfounded.”
“In my opinion, flying saucers do not exist,” he said, insisting his telescopes would have spotted any potential invaders from space. “The people who have seen these things are not experts, [they are] farmers, villagers, and pilots,” he added. He went on to conclude the objects people saw were actually the planet Venus.
Looking back 28 years to 1976, an event took place in the same city of Tehran that even to this day astonishes the UFO community.
The event was described in a four-page document received from the Defense Intelligence Agency (DIA). It occurred on September 19 and 20, 1976, and described technology which we do not yet have today.
Mehrabad Tower, in Tehran, Iran, started receiving phone calls around 12:30 a.m. on the 19th describing the sighting of a UFO seen hovering over the city. Having received a few calls on the sighting, the tower commander went outside to take a look for himself.
Sure enough, he saw it too. Described as resembling a bright star, though “bigger and brighter,” he decided to scramble an F-4 jet to investigate. The jet took off from Shahrokhi Air Force Base. The object was so bright it was actually seen from over 70 miles away.
As the jet approached and reached 25 nautical miles of the object, the plane lost all instrumentation and communications (UHF and intercom). When the aircraft turned away from the object and no longer appeared to be a threat, it regained all instrumentation and communications.
Minutes later, a second F-4 was scrambled to figure out what this UFO was. As the F-4 approached and reached a distance of 25 nautical miles, the object started moving away to maintain that exact distance ...
Read the rest of this article in the July 2004 issue of FATE
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