Milton Torres — RAF Pilot Ordered to Fire on UFO

On the night of May 20, 1957, First Lieutenant Milton Torres of the 406th Fighter Interceptor Wing, USAF, was scrambled in his F-86D Sabre from RAF Manston to intercept a UFO tracked by multiple ground radar stations across East Anglia. The object had appeared suddenly on radar and was demonstrating behavior inconsistent with any known aircraft — remaining stationary, then moving at extreme speeds.

Torres's aircraft radar locked onto the target, which his instruments indicated was roughly the size of an aircraft carrier in radar cross-section — an enormous return far beyond any aircraft. Torres was given explicit authorization — an order — to fire all 24 of his Mighty Mouse air-to-air rockets at the target. He prepared to fire.

Before he could do so, the object accelerated and departed from radar at a speed Torres described as beyond Mach 10 — appearing to go from stationary to extreme velocity in essentially zero time. His radar return simply vanished. The entire engagement lasted only minutes. Torres landed without firing.

Shortly afterward, a man in civilian clothes — clearly intelligence community — visited Torres and warned him to never speak of the incident. Torres maintained that silence for five decades. The incident was released by the UK Ministry of Defence in 2008 through its UFO Disclosure Program, at which point Torres gave his first on-record interviews, confirming every detail of the event and the subsequent intimidation.