Peruvian Air Force pilot shoots at UFO.

Peruvian Air Force Commander Oscar Alfonso Huertas

Comandante Huerta's full statement follows:


"I am Oscar Santa Maria Huerta, official pilot of the Peruvian Air Force, currently retired.

On April 11, 1980, at 7:15 in the morning, 1800 men were in formation at the Air Base of La Joya, Arequipa.

They all observed a stationary object in the sky, which looked like a balloon, at about three miles distance, and approximately 1,800 feet altitude. It was luminous because it reflected the sun.

My unit commander ordered me to takeoff in my Sukhoi 22 jet to shoot down the spherical object. It was in restricted airspace, without clearance, and we were concerned about espionage.

I approached the object and strafed sixty-four 30 mm. shells at it. Some projectiles went towards the ground, and others hit the object fully, but they had no effect at all. The projectiles didn't bounce off; probably they were absorbed. The cone-shaped "wall of fire" that I sent out would normally obliterate anything in its path.

The object then began to ascend, and move farther away from the base. When I was at about 36,000 ft., it made a sudden stop, forcing me to veer to the side since I was only 1500 feet away. I flew up higher to attack It from above, but just as I had locked on to the target and was ready to shoot, the object made a straight vertical climb evading the attack.

Two more times, I had the object on target, when the object was stationary. Each time, it moved away at the very last minute, when I was just about to fire, always eluding my attack.

I decided to climb at full thrust to get above the object, bit began to ascend almost parallel to my plane, and when I reached 63,000 ft., it stopped.

At this point, I came within about 300 feet of the UFO. It was about 30 feet in diameter. It was an enameled, cream-colored dome, with a wide, circular, metallic base. It had no engines, no exhausts, no windows, no wings or antennae. It lacked all the typical aircraft components, with no visible propulsion system.

It was at that moment that I realized that this was no spying device, but that it was a UFO, something totally unknown. I was almost out of fuel, so I couldn't attack or maneuver my plane, or make a high speed escape. I was afraid. I thought I might be finished.

When I had calmed down, I radioed for another plane to come and have a look, trying to hide my fear. They said no, it's too high, just come back. I had to glide part way down due to lack of fuel, zigzagging to make my plane harder to hit, always with my eyes on the rearview mirrors, hoping it wouldn't chase me. It didn't.

I spent 22 minutes maneuvering with this object. After I landed, the object remained stationary in the sky for two more hours, for everyone at the base to see.

A US Department of Defense document titled 'UFO Sighted in Peru' described the incident, stating that the vehicle's origin remains unknown.

It still gives me chills to think about it."

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Commander with the Peruvian Air Force (FAP), Ret. Specialization as an Air Force fighter jet pilot. In 1980, while a FAP Lieutenant, he encountered a UFO while flying his SU-22 "SUKOI" jet over the La Joya Military Base. He fired at the object, strafing it with sixty-four 30mm rounds, but the UFO remained unaffected.

A US Department of Defense document for the CIA and the NSA, titled “UFO Sighted in Peru,” describes the incident. “The Peruvian Air Force tried to intercept and destroy the UFO, but without success," it states, adding that the vehicle’s origin remains unknown. CMDT Santa Maris is currently a Flight Safety and Accident Prevention Consultant for the airline industry.

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Peruvian Jet Pilot Tells of Tangle With UFO (+Photos)

La Joya Air Base at Arequipa Peru showing the position of the balloon like object witnessed on April 11, 1980.

The path Col. Huerta took in approaching the UFO above his military base.

The unidentified craft ascended about 50 miles from base.

The trajectory and speed of Col. Huerta's jet during the close encounter with the UFO.

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Object:

This "balloon" was in restricted air space without authorization, representing a grave challenge to national sovereignty. All civilian and military pilots use aerial charts on which highly protected airspace, such as that over our base, is clearly marked. They all know where these restricted areas are located, and no one ever flies in them, under any circumstances. This thing had not only appeared in such an area, but it was not replying to communications sent on universally recognized frequencies, and it was moving toward the base.



Opens Fire:

After takeoff, I made a turn to the right and reached an altitude of 8,000 feet (2,500 meters). I then positioned myself for the attack. Zeroing in on the balloon, I reached the necessary distance and shot a burst of sixty-four 30 mm shells, which created a cone-shaped "wall of fire" that would normally obliterate anything in its path. Some of the projectiles deviated from the target, falling to the ground, and others hit it with precision. I thought that the balloon would then be torn open and gases would start pouring out of it.

But nothing happened. It seemed as if the huge bullets were absorbed by the balloon, and it wasn't damaged at all. Then suddenly the object began to ascend very rapidly and head away from the base. "What is going on here?" I thought to myself. "I have to get closer to it." So I headed up. I initiated a chase by activating the afterburner of my plane, and reported to the control tower that I intended to follow procedures and continue the task of bringing down the object.



Evasive Maneuvers:

My jet flew at a speed of 600 mph (950 km/hr) and the "balloon" remained about 1,600 feet (500 meters) in front of me. As we got farther from the base, I reported to the control tower information such as "I am at three thousand meters of altitude and twenty kilometers from the base ... I am at six thousand meters of altitude and forty kilometers from the base ..." and so on. By this time I was over the city of Camana, which was about fifty-two miles (eighty-four kilometers) from the base, flying at 36,000 feet (11,000 meters).

I was in full pursuit of the object, when it came to a sudden stop and forced me to veer to the side. I made a turn upward to the right and tried to position myself for another shot. Once I obtained the desired position to fire, which was approximately 3,000 feet (1,000 meters) from the object, I began closing in on it until I had it in perfect sight. I locked on the target and was ready to shoot. But just at that moment, the object made another fast climb, evading the attack. I was left underneath it; it "broke the attack."

I attempted this same attack maneuver two more times. Each time, I had the object on target when it was stationary. And each time, the object escaped by ascending vertically seconds before I started to fire. It eluded
my attack three times, each time at the very last moment.



Details about altitude and service ceiling

Throughout this time I was very focused on trying to achieve my window of about 1,300 to 2,300 feet (400 to 700 meters) distance, which was where I had to position my plane in order to shoot. As this became less possible, I was very surprised and kept asking myself what was going on. Then it became a personal thing for me. I had to get it. But I couldn't because it would always ascend. I was committed to this mission, and felt I must succeed. This was all that mattered, and I felt confident knowing I had an outstanding airplane.

Eventually, as a result of this series of rapid movements upward, the object ended up at an altitude of 46,000 feet (14,000 meters). I had to think of something else to do! I decided to make a bold ascent with my plane so that this time I would be above the object, and then I would come down on it vertically and initiate an attack from above. This way, if the object began to ascend as in the previous three attempts, it would not leave my target range and it would be easier for me to fire. I was not concerned about any collision because of the agility and maneuverability of my plane.

So I accelerated my plane at supersonic speed and went back to where the "balloon" was, by this time traveling at a speed of Mach 1.6, which is approximately 1,150 mph (1,850 km/hr). I calculated the distance between the object and myself as I began to make the ascent. As I went higher, I saw that the object was in fact under me and I thought I would be able to gain the necessary altitude to pull off the maneuver as planned, and succeed in the attack. But to my surprise, the object ascended once again at a high speed and placed itself next to me in parallel formation! This left me without any possibility of attack.

Flying at Mach 1.2, I continued with my ascent, still hoping to pass above it in order to initiate the attack I had planned. But I couldn't. We reached an altitude of 63,000 feet (19,200 meters or 19 kilometers), and suddenly the thing completely stopped and remained stationary. I adjusted the wings of my plane to 30 degrees and extended its slats so that the plane would be able to maneuver at that height, and I thought I could still attempt to target the object in order to fire.

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In Peru, yesterday, I interviewed retired Peruvian Air Force Colonel Julio Chamorro, who is now a flight navigator with a cargo company that operates flights to the Peruvian Amazon in Antonovs. Chamorro was the man who initiated the process of creation, from 1999 to 2001, of the Air Force's Oficina de Investigacion de Fenomenos Anomalos Aeroespaciales (OIFAA), an office to receive reports of UFO sightings, centralize and co-ordinate their investigations and inform the population. It was all official.


One such installations is the La Joya Air Force Base, in Arequipa, in the deserts of south of Peru. It was there that fighter pilot Oscar Santa Maria made his astounding pursuit of a UFO at close range, in the 80s. I have learned that the base was full of Soviet military at that time, as part of Peruvian-Soviet Union agreements to perform military operations in the country, including training and installation of defense apparatus...

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The general was courteous, but in answer to my questions about the attempt to shoot down a UFO, he explained patiently that a mistake had been made, there had been no UFO and what was seen was only "meteorological balloons."

I thought it was odd that those fighter pilots would try to shoot down balloons and that the chief defense attaché at the U.S. Embassy would bother the Defense Intelligence Agency, the NSA, the CIA, the Joint Chiefs of Staff and the State Department over something so seemingly trivial.

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