UFO. Peru

This pilot of the SU-22 fighter of the Peruvian Air Force, experienced a real "Independence Day" in real life, when he fired sixty-four 30-mm projectiles at the UFO to "destroy" it, but they did not produce any effect on the UFO.

Forty years ago, fighter pilot Oscar Santa Maria Huerta tried to shoot down a mysterious UFO in the shape of a "light bulb", which still remains the only documented case of a military aircraft shooting at a UFO.

It was the early morning of April 11, 1980, and the 23-year-old lieutenant of the Peruvian Air Force was preparing for a daily exercise with about 1,800 military personnel and civilians at the La Jolla Air Force Base, located 1,000 km south of the Peruvian capital.

Lieutenant Huerta, an eight-year pilot, was ordered to take off in his Russian-made Sukhoi-22 fighter jet to intercept a strange silver object that was seen hovering near the end of the runway.

The object was located at a distance of five kilometers, hung in the air at an altitude of about 600 meters from the ground and did not respond to any messages.

This "balloon" was in restricted airspace without permission, posing "a serious challenge to national sovereignty," the now-retired colonel writes in the book " UFOs: Generals, Pilots, and government Officials Testify."

Colonel Huerta was one of many researchers, former officers and others who testified at a major press event at the National Press Club in Washington in 2013, which aimed to force the US government to open its files on UFO sightings.

After takeoff, Colonel Huerta climbed to an altitude of 2,500 meters and went to the UFO.

"I reached the required distance and fired a salvo of sixty-four 30-mm shells, which created a cone-shaped 'wall of fire' that usually destroyed everything in its path, " he writes. "Just one of these shells would have destroyed the car, but they did not affect the object. I thought that then the balloon would burst and gases would start leaking out of it. But nothing happened. It seemed that the projectiles were absorbed by the ball, and it did not receive any damage."

Then the object rapidly rushed into the sky, moving away from the base, which caused Colonel Huerta to turn on the afterburner of the aircraft and give chase at a distance of 500 m behind him. When they reached the city of Kamana, located 84 km from the base, the object suddenly stopped, causing it to deviate to the side.

Turning to the right and up, Colonel Huerta tried to get into position for another shot.

"I started to approach him until he was in my line of sight," he writes. "I fixed the target and was ready to shoot. But just at that moment, the object made another rapid ascent, dodging the attack. I stayed under him; he "thwarted the attack."

He tried to repeat the same maneuver two more times, and each time the object moved away from him, flying up a few seconds before he could shoot.

By this time, the object was at an altitude of 14,000 meters above the ground. Colonel Huerta decided to attack the object from above so that it could not leave the target area, but the object pursued him at an altitude of 19,200 meters, which significantly exceeded the characteristics of his aircraft.

At the end of the fuel, he realized that he could not continue the attack, and decided to fly closer to the object to get a better look at it. It wasn't until he was 100 meters away that he realized what it was.

"I was amazed to see that the 'balloon' wasn't a balloon at all. It was an object with a diameter of about 10 meters with a shiny dome on top of a cream color, like a light bulb cut in half, " he writes. "At the bottom was a wider circular base of silvery color, similar to some kind of metal. It was missing all the typical airplane components. It had no wings, no jet engines, no exhaust pipes, no windows, no antennas, and so on. It had no visible propulsion system."

"At that moment, I realized that this was not a spy device, but a UFO, something completely unknown. I was almost out of fuel, so I couldn't attack, maneuver my plane, or make a high-speed maneuver. Suddenly, I was filled with fear. I thought I was finished."

Colonel Huerta was able to make it to the airfield by burning the last remnants of fuel and "zigzagging to make my plane harder to shoot down, constantly watching the rear-view mirrors, hoping that it would not follow me."

After landing, the object remained in the place where he left it for another two hours, "it was visible to everyone on the base, while it was reflected in the rays of the sun."

Colonel Huerta claims that the object was seen by everyone on the base, many of whom had to report. A U.S. Department of Defense document dated June 1980, titled "UFO sightings in Peru," describes the incident, but only states that the object is of unknown origin.

A similar incident occurred in 1976, when General Parviz Jafari of the Iranian Air Force tried to open fire on a UFO, but found that his equipment was faulty. As it turned out later, the weapons were in order, but the UFO was able to disable it.

"My equipment was mechanical, and perhaps for this reason it could not be turned off, so instead the object had to jump back at the last moment," writes Colonel Huerta. "I am in a unique position, at least for the moment and as far as I know, being the only military pilot in the world who has actually fired a weapon and hit a UFO. I still get goosebumps thinking about it."