La Joya Air Force Base Incident

The Incident

On the morning of April 11, 1980, at approximately 7:15 a.m., Peruvian Air Force Lieutenant Óscar Santa María Huertas received an unusual order: intercept and eliminate an unidentified object hovering above La Joya Air Force Base near Arequipa in southern Peru. The object had been spotted by base personnel and was described as a spherical craft suspended approximately 1,800 feet above the ground, roughly three miles from the runway. The base was at full strength that day, with approximately 1,800 military personnel in formation, all of whom would soon witness an extraordinary aerial encounter.

The Engagement

Huertas, a 25-year veteran of the Peruvian Air Force with considerable flying experience, climbed into his Sukhoi-22 fighter jet—at the time the most technologically advanced aircraft in Peru's arsenal. The object was described to him as roughly ten meters in diameter with a completely spherical shape: an upper section resembling cream-colored porcelain and a lower, broad metallic-grey base likened to an ashtray. Huertas maneuvered into attack position and locked his targeting system on the craft.

What followed was perhaps the only documented instance in modern military history of a fighter pilot opening fire directly on an unknown aircraft. Huertas executed four separate firing passes, releasing approximately 64 rounds of 30mm cannon shells. According to his account and military records, the object appeared to absorb the impact of every shot without sustaining visible damage. On three of his four attack passes, when Huertas had locked his targeting system and was preparing to fire, the object moved away with apparent deliberate evasion. The entire engagement lasted 22 minutes, during which hundreds of witnesses on the ground tracked both the fighter and the sphere in the clear morning sky.

Post-Engagement and Aftermath

Unable to bring the object down despite his arsenal, Huertas returned safely to the base. Remarkably, the spherical craft remained visible from the ground for an additional two hours after the pilot's return, continuing to hover in the sky before ultimately disappearing. The incident was documented by military authorities and has since become declassified and part of the official record. Huertas, a credible and experienced pilot with no history of unreliability, maintained his account consistently throughout his career. The Peruvian Air Force made no attempt to suppress or deny the incident, lending it unusual institutional credibility for a UAP encounter.

Historical Significance

The La Joya incident stands as the only confirmed case of a military combat aircraft engaging a UFO with weapons fire. The apparent immunity of the object to conventional weapons has been cited by UFO researchers as potential evidence of non-human technological capability. The case remains featured prominently in UFO literature and is frequently referenced in discussions of credible military UAP encounters, particularly among those who interpret the incident as evidence of an advanced non-terrestrial presence.