Iran Sightings in 2004
The 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.
Skeptics Converted
These sightings were so important that they turned nonbelievers into believers. According to a UPN affiliate station in Connecticut, Abi Golbazi, who filmed the strange phenomenon in Iran while visiting family, has over 20 minutes of footage to show the world. Never crediting UFOs before, his significant sighting turned him into a believer that this footage showed a “visitor from outer space.”
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.
Venus Again!
How is it that when citizens, no matter what their locale, see a ship flying around the sky making maneuvers and spewing out different colors of light, somone is always there to claim it was a planet? Explanations such as these remind me of the Project Blue Book days. A bit before my time, but we have all heard the stories—swamp gas, ball lighting, and the planet Venus. Why is a UFO always the planet Venus? Why not Saturn, Mars, or the shape-shifting Mach 4 traveler Pluto? It boggles the rational mind, but not the skeptic!
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.
Jets Scrambled
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.
The object appeared very bright and was described in the report as being like “flashing strobe lights.” The report also went on to say, very much like the Iran sighting in 2004, that it emanated blue, red, orange, and green colors.
As the chase continued, a second UFO appeared out of the first object. This second object was said to be “one third the apparent size of the moon.” The second object then headed straight forward on a collision course with the approaching F-4. Seeing this object approach at a very high rate of speed, the F-4 pilot went to fire a missile in defense, but at the time he pressed the button to fire, he lost all weapons control and all communications.
The pilot initiated a negative g dive to avoid a collision. Then the second object returned to the original UFO for a perfect reunification. As the second object rejoined the primary, a third object appeared. This time it came out of the other side of the primary UFO and headed straight down, also at a great rate of speed.
A Soft Landing?
Seeing this object approach the ground, the F-4 regained communications and instrumentation and awaited an explosion from this object crashing on Earth. However, there was no crash. Instead, the object appeared to have landed softly on Earth’s surface and cast a light on the ground around two to three kilometers in diameter.
The Iranian pilots calculated the coordinates where this object landed and returned to base. They had extreme problems with the adjustment of their night vision, so they headed out toward the desert and turned around for a straight-in approach.
Before landing, however, they spotted another cylindrical shaped UFO off in the distance—which made it UFO number four for the evening.
During daylight hours the next day, the crew returned to the landing site via helicopter to check out where the object had apparently touched the ground. They spotted a small house near the lakebed that they had charted as the landing spot and questioned the residents, who mentioned a very loud noise the night before, and very bright lights similar to lightning.
The report concluded with the following statement: “The aircraft and the area where the object is believed to have landed are being checked for possible radiation.” The final sentence reads, “More information will be forwarded when available.”
However, there was no further information. In fact, only one other classified report was found in the National Security Agency (NSA) holding. The only difference between this report and the one obtained from the Defense Intelligence Agency was a statement by Capt. Henry S. Shields that said the following:
“Sometime in his career, every pilot can expect to encounter strange, unusual happenings which will never be adequately or entirely explained by logic or subsequent investigation. The following article recounts just such an episode as reported by two F-4 Phantom crews of the Imperial Iranian Air Force during late 1976. No additional information or explanation of the strange events has been forthcoming: the story will be filed away and probably forgotten, but it makes interesting, and possibly disturbing, reading.”—Capt. Henry S. Shields, USAF
Was this statement the cause of this NSA record being classified SECRET? Many questions arose after the sighting of the 1976 Iran UFO. Now, over 25 years later, we have another significant UFO sighting by thousands of witnesses. It took over a year for the report in 1977 to be released under the Freedom of Information Act, even after the government said there was no interest in this phenomenon, so maybe we will get the truth about the 2004 sighting next year. Or how about in 2010?
The question will arise on what exactly is going to be said about this phenomenon. With the recent events in the past months, the media, the skeptical unaware public, and the government alike cannot deny these events forever.
Black Vault Persists
The Black Vault has continued investigating to try to uncover such events, but the stonewalling and games they play are difficult to overcome. Needless to say, after eight years of my own personal research into this phenomenon, I am not going away. The only thing we can do is wait and watch. r
John Greenewald, Jr., is self-employed. He began his Black Vault project at the age of 15. Website: www.theblackvault.com