Parviz Jafari

Parviz Jafari (1940–2022) was a General of the Imperial Iranian Air Force who began his career as a young fighter pilot. He became widely known for his close encounter with a UAP over Tehran on 19 September 1976: scrambled in an F-4 Phantom II to intercept a bright object reported by civilians, his aircraft's weapons systems and communications were, according to his own account, disrupted when he attempted to fire on the object. The Tehran incident — also corroborated by a U.S. Defense Intelligence Agency memo — is considered one of the best-documented military UAP encounters worldwide.

• Born 1940, died 2022
• General of the Imperial Iranian Air Force, career began as a young fighter pilot
• 19 September 1976: scrambled in an F-4 Phantom II over Tehran to intercept a bright object
• Weapons systems and communications disrupted during the pursuit when he tried to fire on the object
• Incident corroborated by a U.S. DIA memo; one of the best-documented military UAP cases
• Public account in 2007 at the National Press Club conference in Washington, D.C.
• A credible witness and advocate for transparency around the incident throughout his life

For the UAP timeline, Jafari is the international reference encounter beyond the U.S. Navy: an Iranian fighter pilot whose account is backed by a U.S. intelligence memo — the Tehran 1976 case thus proves that UAP encounters involving weapons-system interference are not an American privilege but have entered the official documentation of several air forces.