Combat missions are designed for the first pilot involved to be aware of potential problems and dangers. Babaei was honored with the rank of brigadier general on 2/8/1362 due to his merit and bravery in defending the system and suppressing and repelling enemy aggression.A memory of Brigadier General Hossein Khalili, a comrade of the martyr Babaei: One day, we prepared to fly with Shahid Babaei. At that time, he was my flying master, and I was his student. When we got ready for the flight and wanted to fly, the plane had a problem, and we had to get out of it. When the technical staff of the plane started to check and fix the problems, Shahid Babaei sat on the ground next to the plane and calmly looked at their work.
General Abbas Babaei was killed on 6 August 1987, while in the rear seat of an F-5B while over Iraqi air space. He was hit by a 23 mm round of an air defense system on Sardasht air space, a city located in west Azerbaijan. It turned out an Persian’ defense system, operated by Sepah, had hit Babaei’s aircraft in error. The pilot, Major Ali Mohammad Naderi managed to land the jet, but Babaei died within 10 minutes. Sepah used the ZSU-23 self-propelled, radar guided anti-aircraft weapon system (SPAAG) at the time.
