US Pilot Ordered to Shoot Down UFO Over UK

On Monday secret files from the Cold War were released. In the files released the details of a pilot who was seconds away from firing 24 missiles at an object that was flying erratically.

The pilot, Milton Torres, now 77 living in Miami, said the radar gave a reading like a "flying aircraft carrier," and said it spent motionless periods in the sky before it reached speeds of more than 7,600 mph.

"I was only a lieutenant and very much aware of the gravity of the situation. I felt very much like a one-legged man in an ass-kicking contest," Torres said.

"The order came to fire a salvo of rockets at the UFO. The authentication was valid and I selected 24 rockets.

"I had a lock-on that had the proportions of a flying aircraft carrier," he added. "The larger the airplane, the easier the lock-on. This blip almost locked itself."

Right before he fired the object disappeared off the radar and the high-speed chase was called off.

When he returned to base he was debriefed by a man who "looked like a well-dressed IBM salesman." The unnamed man threatened Torres "with a national security breach if I breathed a word about it to anyone," he said.

The documents gave no official explanation for the event but UFO expert David Clarke said, "Perhaps what this pilot had seen was some kind of experiment in electronic warfare or maybe it was a UFO. Something very unusual happened."