UFO Chased by Fighter Pilot in Peru 1980
The next file declassified by the Central Intelligence Agency is related to one of the best known and most outstanding cases in history, in that it reports for the first time, the encounter between a fighter jet and an unidentified flying object.
However, this case itself went much further and stands out from many others, since it relates to how the fighter plane opened fire on the unknown visitor.
The events described indicate that on April 11th 1980, at 7:15 in the morning. Whilst 1,800 men were practicing drill formation at the La Joya air base, in Arequipa southern Peru, they noticed the presence of a strange object flying overhead in the sky, very close to the air force barracks.
Immediately, the commander of the Peruvian air force, Carlos Vasquez Zegarra, ordered fighter pilot Oscar Santa Maria Huerta to get into his plane and shoot down the UFO.
The intruder, CIA documents point out, had not responded to the military base's communication attempts and, being one of the few bases in South America that had Soviet weapons, the Peruvian military suspected that the strange intruder was a device of espionage, so they decreed that it was necessary to intercept and neutralize the object.
Colonel Santa Maria Huerta, quickly boarded his aircraft and took off in order to reach the intruder who was presumed to be an enemy spy. However, what happened thereafter shocked everyone involved. This craft was witnessed by everyone on the base.
Immediately after liftoff, Colonel Huerta flew to 2,500 meters and zeroed in for a direct attack.
“I reached the necessary distance and shot a burst of sixty-four 30mm shells, which created a cone-shaped ‘wall of fire’ that would normally obliterate anything in its path,” The pilot unloaded powerful howitzers rounds directly upon the unknown object and just one of those shells would destroyed a small craft, but the huge destructive bullets had no impact whatsoever!
He expected if this was a balloon like the base personnel first assumed, this first round of fire would have at least popped a hole in it and gas would soon escape deflating it.
According to declassified official reports, the UFO/UAP had a dome in the shape of a spotlight, which was incorporated into a circular base. According to Colonel Santa Maria Huerta, it was as if the UFO repelled the blast of these powerful bullets with some kind of invisible shield.
The object then began to ascend rapidly, 500m ahead of the Sukhoi-22. In response the pilot raised the altitude of his plane giving chase to the UFO, whilst informing the control tower of the base that he would now initiate combat procedures. The pilot took chase of this UFO to the city of Camana, 84km from the base.
The military plane was now flying at 950km per hour trying to get close to the UFO, but without success.
Whenever Huerta increased the speed of his plane, the UFO always matched it, maintaining the same distance between them. The visitor acted as if he could anticipate the actions of Huerta because when he had the UFO in his sights, it quickly rose again. On the third attempt, the object remained static and edged the colonel to make a series of turns, an opportunity that Huerta took advantage of to return to an attack position. However, once again the intruder rose away swiftly.
“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’.”
This action was repeated on several occasions, until they reached an altitude of 19,200 meters, a position in which the Peruvian aircraft, of Russian origin, now flying at a supersonic speed of 1850 kilometers per hour, had reached what is called the maximum ceiling height.
Huerta’s jet was running low on fuel and after this realization he decided to end his attack attempt and instead angle the craft to do a fly by. The UFO responded by not advancing out of his reach and he was able to catch up to it. When Huerta was 100m away he realized what it was.
“I was startled to see that the ‘balloon’ was not a balloon at all. It was an object that measured about 10 meters in diameter with a shiny dome on top that was cream-coloured, similar to a light bulb cut in half”.
“The bottom was a wider circular base, a silver colour, and looked like some kind of metal. It lacked all the typical components of aircraft. It had no wings, propulsion jets, exhausts, windows, antennae, and so forth. It had no visible propulsion system.”
“At that moment, I realized this was not a spying device but 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. Suddenly, I was afraid. I thought I might be finished.
Huerta successfully made it back to the base, having to glide some of the way due to his lack of fuel. All the while watching the object in his mirrors with paranoia that it might follow him. And yet, the object did not pursue. It stayed in it’s place that he had left it for the next 2 hours while the whole base looked up in wonder. Huerta soon debriefed the encounter to his superiors after landing safely.
Subsequently, Huerta participated in various media interviews, narrating his experience, and expressing his surprise at having had an encounter with an object that far exceeded the maneuvers of any known plane at that time. His observations seem to describe deployment of unknown advanced technology, which allowed the object to remain at rest and move instantly at high speeds. An event widely known in the world of UFO investigation, and that today thanks to the declassification of the Central Intelligence Agency we can establish it as one of the most solid cases in history.