U.S. fighter pilot: ‘I was ordered to fire 24 rockets at UFO flying over
East Anglia’
By Rebecca
Camber
Last updated at 6:49 PM on 20th October 2008
Former US Air Force fighter pilot Milton Torres is convinced he had an
encounter with an alien spaceship in the skies over England in the 1950s.
He was warned to keep quiet about the incident, but eventually talked about
it 31 years later, the newly-released Ministry of Defence files show.
On the night of May 20 1957, Dr Torres, then aged 25, was on standby at RAF
Manston in Kent when he received an urgent order to scramble.
He was told to intercept a UFO with "very unusual flight patterns" over East
Anglia that ground radar operators had been tracking for some time.
It was so cloudy he could not see anything, but the object showed up clearly
on his radar as similar in size to a B-52 bomber.
He was then ordered to fire a full salvo of 24 rockets at the object –
something that came as a sobering shock to him.
American fighter pilot Milton Torres was ordered to shoot
down a suspected UFO in 1957 over East Anglia
But before he could carry out this instruction the UFO suddenly darted off
and disappeared from his scope in a matter of seconds.
The next day a man claiming to be from the US National Security Agency
threatened him with losing his flying status if he told anyone what
happened.
Dr Torres, now 77 and living in Miami, Florida, said he was flying at about
Mach 0.92, while the UFO was travelling at over Mach 10.
He said: "I think it was an alien spacecraft. It had a propulsion system that
was beyond us – either magnetism or anti-gravity."
Until 1967 the MoD had a policy of destroying UFO files every five years
because they were considered of "transitory interest".
This means the incident could have vanished without a trace had Dr Torres not
been moved to mention it at a USAF veterans reunion in 1988.
The retired civil engineering professor urged people with more information
about the strange encounter to come forward.
"There are people who are still alive on Earth who know about this. I’m
talking about the RAF, USAF, whatever," he said.
Dr David Clarke, a UFO expert and journalism lecturer, suspects the US
military may have been testing a top-secret machine designed to project phantom
aircraft on to Soviet radar.
"I think the most likely explanation is that he was basically a pawn in some
sort of exercise involving electronic spoofing warfare," he said.
Close encounters: Numerous UFOs have been sighted above
the UK skies
But Dr Torres remains convinced what he saw on the radar came from beyond our
solar system, insisting: "This is something that’s not man-made."
Secret MoD documents released for the first time also show how the captain of
Flight AZ 284 had a similar close encounter to Milton Torres.
As the pilot began his descent into Heathrow, he saw something alarming
overhead.
Shaped like a missile, the object suddenly veered across the airliner’s path
causing the pilot to shout ‘Look out!’ as he attempted to avert a mid-air
collision 22,000ft above the Kent countryside.
Travelling at an estimated 120mph, it passed less than 1,000ft from the
passenger jet before disappearing from radar screens, leaving the pilot and
accident investigators baffled. Enlarge 
Sketch of a UFO: This picture has just been released by
the National Archives
The documents reveal that Ministry of Defence staff accept that an
Unidentified Flying Object zooming above Lydd caused the near miss.
The incident took place at 7.58pm on April 21, 1991, and was investigated by
the Civil Aviation Authority and military experts.
Having ruled out the possibility of it being a missile, weather balloon or
space rocket, the MoD was forced to conclude that it was a genuine UFO and close
the inquiry.
The unexplained close encounter is one of many recounted in military UFO
documents released today by the National Archives.
The Alitalia aircraft was on a routine flight from Milan to Heathrow with 57
people on board when the ten-foot long object, which had no exhaust flame, was
spotted by pilot Achille Zaghetti.
He told accident investigators: ‘I saw for about 3.4 seconds a flying object,
very similar to a missile, light brown coloured.
‘At once I said, "Look out, look out" to my co-pilot, who saw what I had
seen.
‘As soon as the object crossed us I asked the ACC (area control centre)
operator if he saw something on his screen and he answered, "I see an unknown
target 10nm ( nautical miles) behind you".’
Another sketch of a UFO seen by a member of the public
At 10.25pm that night there was a report to Brentwood police in Essex of a
dark flying object in the sky which had no engine noise or lights.
Southern TV also broadcast a story about a 14-year-old boy who reported
seeing a missile flying at low level before climbing through the cloud and
disappearing on the same evening.
Radar images of the object showed that the UFO was initially labelled ‘cruise
missile??’ but checks on Army firing ranges and U.S. and British naval ships
established that it was not a military weapon or ‘space related’ activity.
On July 2 a secret MoD report concluded: ‘These departments have not been
able to confirm the identity of the object sighted by the Alitalia crew.
‘In the absence of any clear evidence which could be used to identify the
object, it is our intention to treat this sighting like that of any other
Unidentified Flying Object and therefore we will not be undertaking any further
investigation into the sighting.’
Other incidents recorded in military files the same year include a ‘wingless
projectile’ seen on June 17, 1991.
Four passengers on board a Boeing 737 saw it pass beneath the airliner as it
climbed from Gatwick Airport headed for Hamburg.
Gatwick air traffic controllers were alerted but said they were ‘unaware of
anything unusual occurring at that time’.
A weather balloon had been released in the area around this time, but the
description and timing did not match the wingless object, according to military
files.
On July 15 the crew of a Britannia Airways 737 descending into Gatwick at
14,000ft reported seeing a ‘small black lozenge-shaped object’ travelling at
high speed just 100 yards from the aircraft.
Air traffic control confirmed a ‘primary contact’ visible on the radar ten
nautical miles behind the 737 travelling at 120mph.
Immediately air traffic controllers warned a following aircraft to turn left
to avoid the object, although the pilot said he never saw it.
An investigation completed in April 1992 was unable to explain the incident
but suggested the unidentified object could have been an escaped balloon.
The files are available online for the first time at http://ufos.nationalarchives.
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