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UFOs & UAP

Silent Rainbow Lights Over Tehran, 50 Years After the City's Famous UFO Night

A motorcyclist says he filmed a silent arc of color-changing lights near the clouds over Tehran, almost 50 years to the day after the 1976 incident. Fact-checkers say the clip isn't AI, and no authority has identified what it shows.

TEHRAN, Iran By Dead of Night Dispatch

Location Azadegan Expressway, Tehran, Iran

TEHRAN, Iran (Sept. 20, 2026) — Fifty years and a day after Iranian F-4 Phantoms were scrambled toward a brilliant light over this city, a man riding a motorcycle along the Azadegan Expressway says he looked up and saw an arc of colored lights hanging near the clouds. He filmed it for a little over 20 seconds. Within days his post had passed 7.5 million views, a U.S. congressman had called it “legit,” and the Pentagon had been asked what it knew.

So far, no one has said what it was.

What we know

On the record: documents, statements, dates and places. Sources below.

  • Who filmed it, and where. According to an open-source investigation by Offbeat Concerns, the earliest traceable post came from Ali Sedaghati (@AliiiiiSeda) on X in the early hours of Sept. 21. His Persian caption dates the sighting to 29 Shahrivar in the Iranian calendar, which is Sept. 20. The Daily Mail puts it at around 7:30 p.m. local time. Some early coverage placed it on the night of Sept. 19–20.
  • Geolocation. Offbeat Concerns reported that Sedaghati said in a reply that he was near the interchange of the Azadegan and Tondgooyan expressways, and that he told CNN Türk he was on his motorcycle. Road signs in the clip let investigators place it at an approximate spot on the expressway.
  • What the footage shows. Belgian public broadcaster RTBF describes a continuous arc of lights shaped like a crescent or an inverted V, made up of very bright points that change color in sequence: blue, green, red, violet.
  • Not AI, per fact-checkers. RTBF concluded the video was not AI-generated: Hive Moderation gave it a low 17.1% probability of being AI, and no Google SynthID watermark was detected. Offbeat Concerns also reported finding no signs of manipulation.
  • What Iranian outlets reported. According to RTBF, Iran’s student news agency, ISNA, wrote that no independent information has been released on the object’s altitude, speed, trajectory or nature, and that no military or aviation authority has identified it. Fars News reported that its inquiries with Iran’s Civil Aviation Organization found no radar track attributable to the object.
  • Washington’s answer. Asked whether the U.S. military detected the object or was conducting operations in the area, a Pentagon spokesperson told the Daily Mail it had “nothing to provide.”
  • The anniversary. On Sept. 19, 1976, an unidentified object was seen over Tehran by civilians and military personnel and tracked on radar. Two Imperial Iranian Air Force F-4 Phantom II jets reported losing instruments and communications as they approached it, and one reported a weapons-system failure. The case is documented in declassified U.S. records.
  • One clip to set aside. A widely shared “closer view” posted Sept. 21 by the account Iran Mil Updates is not from Tehran. Offbeat Concerns traced it to footage reportedly filmed on Nov. 4, 1994, at the Nellis Air Force Range in Nevada. The only Tehran footage is Sedaghati’s original clip.

What’s claimed

Accounts, testimony and theories, as told by the people who tell them.

  • The witness. In the Daily Mail’s translation, Sedaghati wrote: “I really don’t know what it is, but it was near the clouds, had special lights, and was hovering in the space without any sound!” He said the object was about the size of a large plane and added, “it wasn’t human-made. It was a UFO, I’m sure.” When he tried to film again about ten minutes later, he said, it was gone.
  • The congressman. Shown the clip on The Benny Show, Rep. Tim Burchett said: “It’s legit. It’s something up there. It’s just, what is it? We’re seeing more and more of this stuff.” He added: “It could be a psyop, like what Reagan did to the Russians with Star Wars.”
  • The theories. According to Offbeat Concerns and RTBF, online theories range from extraterrestrial craft and advanced military technology to surveillance equipment, drones and an LED-lit kite. None has been confirmed.
  • The 1976 pilot’s account. The Daily Mail recounts interviews in which Maj. Parviz Jafari, who flew the second F-4 that night, described the object as about the size of a 747. He said glowing orbs appeared to come out of it and that his weapons controls were disabled as he prepared to fire.

Fifty years on

The calendar is what gives this story its pull. In September 1976, the lights over Tehran ended up in U.S. intelligence files. In September 2026, the lights over Tehran ended up on millions of phones. Both times, the people who saw them described something bright, multicolored and hovering, and both times the official record stops short of saying what it was.

The Pentagon has nothing to provide, and Iran’s civil aviation authority has no radar track. What remains is 20 seconds of video and one man’s account of a silent sky over the Azadegan Expressway.

Sources

  1. Un OVNI a bien survolé Téhéran dans la nuit du 19 au 20 septembre (fact-check, French) — RTBF
  2. The Tehran Lights: An OSINT Investigation Into the Viral UFO Videos — Offbeat Concerns
  3. Mysterious glowing UFO hovers silently over Iran in shocking new video — Daily Mail
  4. イラン上空に謎の飛行船が出現 (Japanese) — Daily Sports (Japan)