Mansour Sattari

Mansour Sattari (Persian: منصور ستاری; also Romanized as Mansoor Sattari; 19 May 1948 – 5 January 1995) was an Iranian Air Force Brigadier general. After serving his compulsory military service in the Army Artillery branch, he joined the Iranian Military Academy and entered the Imperial Iranian Air Force in 1965 in the Ground Force branch. In 1971 he was sent to United States to attend a course in Advanced Radar Control and Battle Management. Upon his return to Iran he was employed as a Radar Defence Control Officer. He implemented many innovative plans to improve radar and counterattack systems that was learnt from the United States Air Force, which proved helpful in disabling offensive capacities of the Iraqi Air Force during the Iran-Iraq War. In 1983 Mansour Sattari was appointed Deputy Operations Officer for the Islamic Republic of Iran Air Force counterattack headquarters, and in 1985, as the Deputy Planning Officer of IRIAF. In 1986, after reaching the rank of Colonel, he was appointed the Commander-in-Chief of the Islamic Republic of Iran Air Force. He held this position until his death. On January 5, 1995 an Islamic Republic of Iran Air Force (IRIAF) Lockheed JetStar crashed near Isfahan during an emergency landing, killing all 12 on board including General Mansour Sattari, commander of the IRIAF. He was 46 years old. The Iranian Sattar missile and Shahid Sattari Aeronautical University were named after him.