Incident · 20 May 1957 · Over East Anglia and the North Sea (F-86Ds from RAF Manston, Kent)
RAF Manston F-86D ordered to fire on a radar UFO over East Anglia
Also known as Milton Torres incident, Manston 1957, Torres UFO intercept, ordered to shoot down a UFO
On the night of 20 May 1957, by the account of the pilot, Lt. Milton Torres, two U.S. Air Force F-86D Sabres of the 406th Fighter Interceptor Wing were scrambled from RAF Manston in Kent to intercept a radar target that RAF ground controllers had been tracking over East Anglia. Torres says he was ordered to fire his full load of 24 rockets, had the order authenticated, and locked on to a return “the proportions of a flying aircraft carrier”, which reversed and left his radar seconds before he could fire. He says a civilian debriefed him the next day and swore him to secrecy.
The story reached the Ministry of Defence in 1988, when a British solicitor sent it the narratives of Torres and of the second pilot, written after the two met at a reunion; the MoD found no record of the incident, and neither did the U.S. Air Force. The papers, with the pilots' names redacted, were released at the National Archives on 20 October 2008 (DEFE 24/1931, 24/1942), and Torres then went public. The second pilot's account differs on most details (a training flight, rearming at Bentwaters, several targets, no lock-on). No explanation has been established; the solicitor's suggestion that it was an electronic-warfare exercise that spoofed the radar has never been confirmed.
Sources: MoD files DEFE 24/1931 and DEFE 24/1942 (The National Archives, released October 2008) · AP via NBC News, 20 October 2008 · Torres's interview
Facts and claims
- documented A British solicitor sent the Ministry of Defence a former American pilot's typed narrative in July 1988, asking whether, “31 years after the event”, an experiment in “electronic warfare” had been taking place with the pilot as a “guinea pig”, and whether the technology existed in 1957 to create such radar illusions (DEFE 24/1931, p. 260). Source: defe-24-1931.pdf
- claimed In the narrative (pp. 261–263) the pilot, Milton Torres, says two F-86Ds of the 514th Fighter Interceptor Squadron were scrambled from five-minute alert at RAF Manston on 20 May 1957 and vectored over the North Sea east of East Anglia, where ground radar had been watching a blip “orbiting the East Anglia area” that was “motionless for long intervals”; he was ordered to fire a full salvo of rockets, asked for and received authentication, and “selected 24 rockets to salvo.” — Milton Torres Source: defe-24-1931.pdf
- claimed He locked on at 15 miles to a return with “the proportions of a flying aircraft carrier”; about ten seconds before rocket release the overtake reversed, the blip moved away and broke lock, and the ground station told him it was off their scope as well. He never saw it: he was in cloud the whole time. — Milton Torres Source: defe-24-1931.pdf
- claimed His wingman's letter in the same file (pp. 67–69) agrees that “we did chase UFO's that evening” but differs on the rest: he recalls a training flight, landing at RAF Bentwaters to be armed with live rockets, several “unknowns” across more than one GCI site, never getting a lock-on, and no one telling him to keep quiet; he adds that he had “no reason to believe it was not as recounted” by Torres. Source: defe-24-1931.pdf
- documented An MoD memo of 18 November 1988 records a Daily Express enquiry about a solicitor's claim that on 20 May 1957 two USAF jets based at RAF Manston “were armed and ordered to fire on a UFO “the size of an aircraft carrier”” (DEFE 24/1931, p. 66). Source: defe-24-1931.pdf
- documented In 1989 the solicitor wrote to the MoD that the addresses it had recommended had replied that “the American Air Force appear to have no “official” record of the above event” (DEFE 24/1942, p. 261). Source: defe-24-1942.pdf
- claimed David Clarke, who worked with the National Archives on the release, said the CIA once had a program to create phantom radar signals and that this may have been an electronic-warfare exercise, but that “there's no doubt something very unusual happened.” — David Clarke Source: nbcnews.com (archived)
Connected files
Documents
- Ministry of Defence UFO correspondence files DEFE 24/1931 and DEFE 24/1942 (subject of) — Holds both pilots' statements (DEFE 24/1931 pp. 67–69, 261–263), the solicitor's 1988 covering letter and the 1989 reply that the USAF had no record (DEFE 24/1942 p. 261)
- The National Archives: guides to the Ministry of Defence UFO files (2008–2013) (subject of)
Incidents
- Lakenheath–Bentwaters radar-visual incident (similar to) — A year earlier, also over East Anglia: RAF ground radar vectoring fighters onto unknown targets
People
- David Clarke (statements by)
- Milton Torres (witnesses) — Scrambled from RAF Manston on 20 May 1957 and ordered to fire a full salvo of 24 rockets at a radar target
Videos
- Milton Torres on Sky News: ordered to shoot down a UFO over East Anglia (October 2008) (subject of)
- Milton Torres at the 2009 X-Conference: the Manston intercept in his words (subject of)
- Citizen Hearing 2013: The Truth Embargo (discussed in)
- Milton Torres interview: ordered to fire 24 rockets at a UFO over England (1957) (subject of)
Mentioned in this file
- National Archives and Records Administration (Organization)
- Rendlesham Forest incident (Incident)
- RAF Bentwaters and RAF Woodbridge (Place)
- Ministry of Defence (UK) (Organization)
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