On Jan. 5, 1995 the entire senior commanders of the regular Iranian Air Force (HQ’s general staff) were killed in a suspicious plane crash near the city of Isfahan. Among the dead were several generals including the Iranian Air Force’s commander Gen. Mansour Sattari, the air force’s deputy commanders Gen. Yassini, Gen. Ardestani and a few other high ranking officers.
The cause of the crash is still unknown.
The IRIAF’s board of inquiry never released its findings, if they found any. Some attributed the cause of crash to be ‘pilot error’ as some recalled the pilot being a ‘flight training school reject’ who was about to be dismissed. But why give the control of a VIP aircraft with a dozen VIP passengers to a ‘flight school reject’ then?
The Iranian regime is known to be hostile to the regular Iranian armed forces (Air Force, Army and Navy).
The first round of mass purges came right after the Ayatollahs’ seizure of power in February 1979. At the time, they mercilessly executed almost all the Shah’s armed forces generals and those who were deemed anti-revolutionary. It is believed that upwards of 9,000 military service-members were executed between February 1979 and October 1980, while hundreds were let go under bogus circumstances. Among those who were killed, there were dozens of highly trained fighter pilots, technicians and war planners whose absence left Iran almost defense-less against the Iraqi onslaught during the coming 8 year long war.
The second round of mass executions came in 1983-84 when several senior naval and ground forces officers were charged with ‘membership in Tudeh (communist party of Iran) party’ and summarily executed. Many claim that these men’s main crime was protesting the regime’s plans to expand the war and seize Iraqi territory. These senior officers believed the war objective of ejecting Iraq from Iran’s territory had been achieved and it was time to settle for peace.
But these mass executions and death squads are the official purges we know about. And the Iranian regime is actually proud of its work in ‘cleansing the earth from corrupt individuals’. The notion of ‘eradicating the corrupt from the face of the earth is very common in Iran.
Being ‘corrupt’ or ‘Mofsed’ is also a charge that the regime lays on any one who might be deemed counter-revolutionary or un-islamic.
And then there are purges we do not know about or haven’t heard much about.
The first of these came in September of 1981. The then commander of the Iranian AF Javad Fakouri along with the Chief of Staff of Iran’s armed forces General Fallahi, Defense Minister Namjou (all western oriented senior officers) died in a mysterious crash aboard a C-130 Hercules transport plane, while returning from an inspection tour of the Iranian military gains in the war against Saddam’s army.
Again, no official cause of the crash was ever released. Through these violent mass executions and lay offs, the new Islamic regime solidified its control over what was dubbed the Shah’s “Taghuti” Armed Forces.
As mentioned earlier, the entire command and general staff of the regular Iranian Air Force (IRIAF) was decimated in a mysterious ‘Lockheed JetStarII’ plane crash.
Gen. Sattari (a ground radar control officer by training) had become commander of the Iranian AF in 1986 at a time when the air force was under enormous pressure, and lacked any serious capability during the last phase of the war with Iraq. He’d become famous for introducing I-HAWK air defense missile batteries as battlefield mobile air defense systems. Through personal innovation and initiative, he single handedly was responsible for downing dozens of Iraqi aircraft. His connections with the current president of Iran who was chief of civil and military defense at the time paid off in 1986, and he was appointed the commander of the air force.
Though not known for being pro-Shah or remotely western, he had an independent streak that led him to be distrusted by the regime. He had grand plans to modernize the battered air force and pushed to purchase new aircraft (MiG-29s, Sukhoi-24, F-7 Chengdu… etc) and wished to strengthen the weakened air arm under his command. He retained many of the US trained pilots and technicians. He fought tooth and nail to have many of the western trained personnel be returned to active duty since their expertise were needed to maintain the western aircraft.
Those plans were not favored by a regime that regards the regular army as ‘Taghuti’ and relies on the ‘Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC)’ to protect the Islamic revolution. Not to mention using the IRGC as a check against the regular military. (IRGC has seized or established grounds/bases near every major regular military base in Iran).
Once those senior commanders (read obstacles) were killed, the regime went into one of its mass purges again. Dismissal rates increased, dissident personnel were thrown in jail, any one who voiced his concern against rampant corruption was jailed, cronyism grew larger as the new commander of the IRIAF Gen. Baghae’e (known as ‘Choopan’ or herder, for his love of goats, cows and sheep) turned the air force bases around the country into herding grounds, and started using the air force’s conscript soldiers as slave laborers in the regime’s oil and gas projects through out the country. He basically did what he was told to do: keep an important branch of the regular military weak and incompetent.
At the time of the ‘JetStarII crash’ in Isfahan in January of 1995, many within the air force community believed the cause of the incident was ‘a package’ given to a crew member as a gift. Did the ‘gift’ explode mid-air causing the loss of cabin pressure and subsequent loss of life and aircraft in the process? No one knows.
But the history of military purges in Iran tells me that the regime did not want General Sattari and co to run the regular air force.
What better way to dismiss these men in a mysterious mid-air crash than to risk upsetting 1/3rd of Iran’s mostly pro-western US trained regular military?
Winston Smith for TheAviationist.com
Image credit: The Spirit of Man, Wiki
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Sorry for another post but 9000 executed!!! were do you bring that number from?
Even in Nojeh coup which was the bloodiest that happened in Iranian Army history after revolution(according to human rights and western sources) between 121 to 144 members of the Armed forces(including Shahrbani were executed) and in the early stages of revolution several dozens were executed.
What is your source for this 9000? because I hadn’t even heard such a number.
Google.com is your friend. Use it.
I asked for a source because I searched and there isn’t any source claiming that 9000 military personnel were executed even pro shah Sarbaz organization which have a list of the executed personnel doesn’t claim 9000(it has a list of around 200)
The figure includes the number of conscript soldiers, officers and commanders who were executed or killed by Islamic rebels and forces (i.e massacre of officers in Lavizan and Shiraz in 1978 by two pro-Khomeini corporals) from the onset of the revolution in 1978 to the late 1980s. The figure actually is way higher.
2000 peoples were killed in revolution, how the hell so many military personnel were killed?! and how many were massacred in lavizan and shiraz by TWO corporals, my father was a cadet in daneshkade afsari at the time and later served for 33-34 years in the army(1355-1388) and i lived in military bases(khune sazmani) so i know a lot about the army and 9000 is a gross lie.
I ask again provide a source for 9000 number?
I will provide you a source once you renounce your beloved regime. deal?
Here is the list of executed members of the Imperial Armed forces in a pro shah source(the names are in persian), it is around 200 names
http://alineshat.org/Janbakhtegan.asp
And here is a separate list for IIAF(57 names) (the names here are repeated in the source above)
http://www.iiaf.net/history/commemorates.html
http://www.shahyad.net/iiarmy/martyrs/22bahman/22bahman.html
It is not 9000 but around 500(I tried to count them all) and includes those who were killed in street battles and also SAVAK, Gendarmerie and Sharbani(police)
and this number is provided by biased pro shahis, but it is not even 1000 let alone 9000
@WinstonCN
I am 100% sure that you are one of those Iranian dissidents that has left Iran from beginning of new Iran era as you have numerously used key words like: “Taghuti”, “Mofsed” and so on, and unfortunately the only thing you can do is just insult and humiliate the NEW IRAN achievements.
For the very respectful reasonable READERS I have to mention that :
1) The late Sattari was one of those heroes that Iran has ever seen, which today major streets and military bases in Iranian cities has “Martyr Sattari” name on it. Some of his greatest work were the AZARAKHS and SAEGHEH fighter planes. I think no country would put the name of its traitors on main streets and places.
2) Today his son, Dr Sorena Satttari is the Vice President of Iran for Science and Technology, check at : http://www.isti.ir, I don’t think that the regime you have accused of killing one its most loyal heroes, would ever put the son of a putative traitor at such high ranking position ????!!!
3) After the last military plane crashed on 2007 that killed several key IRGC commanders in Urumiye, Including the commander for IRGC ground forces Ahmad Kazemi, the Joint Cheif of Staff of Iranian Military Forces has Issued a high level warning for all Iranian military commanders both for the Regular Army and the IRGC that no more than 1 commander can fly with a single plane simultaneously to avoid any incidents.
4) It is very possible for the superpowers to send very strong destructing beams to the electronic aviation system of planes from space and shoot them down, as it has happened for almost every Air Force Commander in the ME except for Israel.
5) @WinstonCN It is very shameful for you to waste your time and the readers of this specialist website with your garbage and nonsense conspiracy theories.
You are wrong…
F off winstonCN . Sattari was a hero and loved by the supreme leader , air force of the Islamic republic has always been loyal to the Supreme Leader . everyone knows that the Iranian air force at that time had problems with maintenance and spare parts and we always have these plane crashes. or sabotages by western dogs
:-))
@WinstonCN
For the very respectful reasonable READERS I have to mention that :
1) The late Sattari was one of those heroes that Iran has ever seen, which
today major streets and military bases in Iranian cities has “Martyr
Sattari” name on it. Some of his greatest work were the AZARAKHS and
SAEGHEH fighter planes. I think no country would put the name of its
traitors on main streets and places.
2) Today his son, Dr Sorena Satttari is the Vice President of Iran for Science and Technology, checkat : http://www.isti.ir, I don’t think that the regime you have accused
of killing one its most loyal heroes, would ever put the son of a putative traitor at such high ranking position ????!!!
3) After the last military plane crashed on 2007 that killed several key IRGC
commanders in Urumiye, Including the commander for IRGC ground forces
Ahmad Kazemi, the Joint Cheif of Staff of Iranian Military Forces has
Issued a high level warning for all Iranian military commanders both for
the Regular Army and the IRGC that no more than 1 commander can fly
with a single plane simultaneously to avoid any incidents.
4) It is very possible for the superpowers to send very strong destructing
beams to the electronic aviation system of planes from space and shoot
them down, as it has happened for almost every Air Force Commander in
the ME.
LOL… New Iran, eh!? You mean the new Iran where journalists and dissidents are in jail for protesting a fraudulent election? interesting.
Shah did the same, SAVAK arrested people only because they had some books.
At least now there are now some elections and papers criticizes the government.
You’re a professional liar … Maybe they can criticize “the government” but they can’t criticize supreme leader and IRGC. Social life has been deteriorating and “Before revolution…” is used rather in a nostalgic way even by mullahs! And about the army, tell me why even in official documentaries the post revolutionary purge is often mentioned?
Mohamad reza shah is the man who built the most powerfull armed forces in the region. He also inherited a country as backward as Afghanistan and transformed it into the most powerfull economy, political and military power in the region.
You uneducated mollah supporters don’t even know the Khomenie aiport was to be completed by 1984 and the planning was done by the” dictators” regime it was to be called the Cyrus the great international air port.. The Tehran autobun,, metro and stock exchange were all Shah’s regimes projects to be completed in the 80’s.
The man built a economy that was growing fster then Japan by the ealy to mid-70’s and iran’s auto and gas infrastructure was on wold record pace.When the Palvis left Ia’s economic cofers were full and now the country is headed for bankraupcy.
These silly mollh supporters have no idea how bad Iran’s most accomplished fighter ace BG Jall Zandi was treated or how bad other great pilos like javadpour, Hooshya, Ole Agha Afkhami, Farahvar and the majority of the pilots were treated. THEY WATCH A FEW FAKE PRESS TV PROPAGANDA AND THINK ALL THESE GUYS WERE TREATED GREAT.
well put