U.S. Pilot Admits to Nearly Shooting Down UFO

In 1957, most of the Western world was living in fear of an attack from the Soviet Union. And although that attack never materialized, the 1950s and 60s were tense times where people were trained to prepare for the worst. U.S. military forces stationed around the world were always on alert and ready to act. That is the backdrop of this story about a UFO encounter that nearly resulted in an air battle over England.

When the alert came in to scramble two fighter jets from the Royal Air Force Base at Manston, Kent in May 1957, one of the pilots was Milton Torres. Torres is now 77 years old and retired from the military, living in Miami, Florida.

Torres claims that he still remembers the incident vividly and described the object he encountered as one that "moved erratically and gave a radar reading like a flying aircraft carrier."

He remembers this incident as unique because he was given orders to open fire a series of rockets at the object even before his plane was in the air. He was authorized to fire and he eventually selected 24 rockets to launch at the object. His weapons system locked on quickly to the massive object, but the object disappeared from his radar screen just before he fired his rockets.

The day after his UFO encounter, Torres was debriefed by what can only be described as a "shadowy figure" that Torres said appeared to be "well-dressed IBM salesman." The man threatened the young pilot with a national security breach if he ever discussed the incident with anyone. Torres honored the threat and has been quiet about the incident ever since.

UFO experts have differing opinions on what may have been in the sky that night, if anything at all. UFO expert David Clarke told Reuters that the sighting may have been part of a secret U.S. project to create phantom radar readings to confuse Soviet air defenses.