Jalal Damirian

Jalal Damirian was an Iranian Air Force First Lieutenant and graduate of U.S. pilot training (Vance Air Force Base), from the city of Tabriz and a native Turkish speaker. As navigator (backseater) in Major Jafari's F-4 Phantom on 19 September 1976 he experienced the Tehran UFO incident directly from the rear cockpit — including the radar lock on the object and the subsequent weapons and instrument failures. About six months into the Iran-Iraq War he was killed on a bombing mission when his aircraft was shot down by an SA-2 SAM missile.

• Iranian Air Force First Lieutenant
• From Tabriz, native Turkish speaker
• Married with a child about two years old; described as wise, kind and educated
• Trained at Vance Air Force Base and earned U.S. Air Force wings, then served in the Iranian Air Force as an F-4 Phantom crew member
• Navigator in Major Jafari's F-4 Phantom during the Tehran UFO incident on 19 September 1976
• Observed the sub-object and ground landing from the rear cockpit
• Radar lock on the object; shared weapons and instrument failures with Major Jafari
• Killed approximately six months into the Iran-Iraq War on a bombing mission by an SA-2 SAM missile

For the UAP timeline, Damirian is the second F-4 Phantom witness of the Tehran night and — through his later fate in the Iran-Iraq War — one of the most tragic figures of early disclosure history: a navigator involved in the UFO encounter whose military biography ends under the SA-2 missile of a neighbouring war.