Tehran F-4 intercepts

After residents phoned in reports of a bright light, the Imperial Iranian Air Force sent two F-4 Phantoms; the first lost instruments and communications as it closed and recovered when it turned away, and the second got a radar lock comparable to a tanker, saw a smaller object detach, and lost its weapons-control panel when trying to fire. The account comes from a US Defense Attaché message and a DIA evaluation that called it an outstanding report, circulated widely in Washington; the COMETA report in PURSUE reviews it. Philip Klass and James Oberg argued the crews first saw Jupiter, that equipment faults common to the F-4 explain the failures, and that a technician said only one aircraft reported faults. Raw radar and maintenance records are not public.

Jupiter or another bright source plus coincidental F-4 equipment faults (Klass, Oberg); disputed by the pilots

• Document255_413270_UFO's_and_Defense_What_Should_we_Prepare_ForRelease 1

  UFOs and Defense: What Should We Prepare For? (the COMETA report), with April 2001 Carol Rosin cover letter and handwritten notes

  This is not a NASA-authored document: it is a 2001 cover letter and handwritten notes from Carol Rosin (self-described former spokesperson for Wernher von Braun) forwarding the 1999 French COMETA report 'UFOs and Defense: What Should We Prepare For?' to a NASA official, apparently seeking a meeting. COMETA was an independent association of former auditors of the French defense-studies institute IHEDN, not a French government body. The report reviews French pilot testimonies, five foreign radar/visual aeronautical cases (Lakenheath-Bentwaters, RB-47, Tehran 1976, a Russian missile-base case, Belgium), several French ground cases investigated by GEPAN/SEPRA (Trans-en-Provence, the 'Amaranth' case, a 1979 close encounter with reported humanoid figures), and recommends French and EU government action, stating the extraterrestrial hypothesis 'cannot be ruled out.'

  Open the original on war.gov

• Wikipedia: 1976 Tehran UFO incidenten.wikipedia.org