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1980 · La Joya Air Base, Arequipa, Peru

Peru's OIFAA and the La Joya interception

Sourced, unconfirmed
Strength B · 8/10 · 2 independent
Evidence 3/4 · Witnesses 3/3 · Backing 2/3

A named military pilot's firsthand account, a DoD message recording it and the Peruvian Air Force's UFO office citing it.

Plausibility High
Score 12 · 7 factors for, 0 against

A named military pilot's firsthand account of firing on a hovering object, recorded in a DoD message and cited by Peru's Air Force UFO office.

See the factors ↓

Natural cause proposed, not demonstrated
TVPerú: the pilot who chased and fired on a UFO over Arequipa · TVPerú Noticias (Instituto Nacional de Radio y Televisión del Perú)
When11 April 1980, about 07:15 (some sources give 9 May 1980)
WhereLa Joya Air Base, Arequipa, Peru
Backing2 independent
Evidencedocuments, official records

In their own words

“It had no effect at all." The object "seemed to absorb the shots". "The total 22 minutes of maneuvers is clearly etched in my brain.”
Santa María Huertas, testimony at the Citizen Hearing

The office. The Peruvian Air Force (FAP) runs an office for anomalous aerial phenomena. The press calls it the DIFAA (Departamento de Investigación de Fenómenos Aéreos Anómalos). The FAP's own state news agency, Andina, calls it the OIFAA (Oficina de Investigación del Fenómeno Aéreo Anómalo). - It was created in 2001. Its first documented case was Chulucanas, Piura, 13 October 2001: reportedly eight red-orange spheres watched by hundreds of people for over five hours. The chief investigator then was Anthony Choy. - It went dormant around 2005-2008. Sources differ, and the reasons were "administrative problems". - In October 2013 the FAP's Dirección de Intereses Aeroespaciales (DINAE), headed by Col. Julio Vucetich, announced it would reopen. It was to bring together Air Force personnel with sociologists, archaeologists, astronomers and meteorologists, and to take reports from the public. - It has been led since October 2013 by Cmdr. (ret.) Julio César Chamorro Flores. He is a former La Joya radar operator trained in the USSR. - I found no published OIFAA case file or archive. The UFO Transparency mirror has no Peruvian files. The case. In 2013, OIFAA's head pointed to La Joya as the reference case. On the morning of 11 April 1980, Lt. Óscar Santa María Huertas was scrambled in a Sukhoi Su-22 from La Joya to intercept an object over the base. The base suspected an espionage balloon. He fired about sixty 30 mm rounds at it with no visible effect. He then chased it for about 22 minutes up to about 63,000 ft, and broke off short of fuel. The incident was reported by the US defence attaché in a June 1980 DoD message titled "UFO Sighted in Peru". That message is widely cited, and Santa María submitted a copy of it at the 2013 Citizen Hearing. It states the object's origin as unknown. I could not obtain or read that message, and the date (April or May 1980) and other details vary between accounts. So this is graded sourced, not record.

Evidence, in date order (2)

  1. Jun 1980U.S. defence attache, Limadocument
    June 1980 DoD message 'UFO Sighted in Peru' recording the event, origin unknown Shar Adams, "Peruvian Jet Pilot Tells of Tangle With UFO", Epoch Times, 3 May 2013
  2. 13 Nov 2013Cmdr. Julio Chamorro (head of OIFAA, Peruvian Air Force)official
    official recollection of the La Joya firing on the object Andina, "Cada día más personas avistan cosas extrañas en los aires", 13 Nov 2013

How plausible · High

A named military pilot's firsthand account of firing on a hovering object, recorded in a DoD message and cited by Peru's Air Force UFO office.

  • ●●
    Access He fired on it.
  • ●●
    No gain sought Nothing sold.
  • ●●
    Consistent over time Decades.
  • ●●
    Character record Air Force pilot.
  • ●●
    Checkable details check out DoD message.
  • ●○
    Cost of speaking Named.

Plausibility weighs how well an account fits where secrecy hides the documents by design, so missing records never count against it. Strength measures what is documented. Assessed 2026-10-23.

On the record

  • OIFAA (DIFAA) is an FAP office. It was created in 2001, dormant for some years and reopened in October 2013 under DINAE. Col. Julio Vucetich explained the purpose (Guardian via Raw Story; Foreign Policy). This is official, as reported.
  • Chamorro, head of OIFAA, recalled La Joya: a sighting in April "1980 or 1981" of what he called a hot-air balloon ("globo"), which Santa María in a Sukhoi fired on with more than 80 shells; "Estuvo jugando como al gato y ratón." (Andina, 13 Nov 2013; official spokesman, recalling.)
  • Chamorro: "Hasta el día de hoy está pendiente investigar lo que ocurre en Huánuco." That is, reports of large craft over Huánuco were still uninvestigated (Andina; official spokesman).

Claims

An object hovering about 1,800 ft above ground some 3 miles from the base, described as like a light bulb with a wide silver base, was fired on with about sixty 30 mm rounds without effect, then climbed away as he chased it to about 63,000 ft over 22 minutesfirsthandSourced, unconfirmedÓscar Santa María Huertas; chain: Santa María → 2013 Citizen Hearing → Epoch Times
The rounds fired numbered "more than 80secondhandSourced, unconfirmedJulio Chamorro (OIFAA); chain: FAP lore/records → Chamorro → Andina
The rounds fired numbered 64secondhandSourced, unconfirmedPeruvian press (*Correo*); chain: unknown → *Correo*
A US DoD document of June 1980 records the event and says the object's origin was unknownsecondhandSourced, unconfirmedpress accounts; chain: DoD message → researchers → press (not read)
The Su-22 had not yet arrived at La Joya by April 1980 (the unit history gives May 1980), so the April date is doubtfulanalysisSourced, unconfirmedforum contributor, cosmoquest.org (unverified)
'I reached the necessary distance and shot a burst of 64 30 mm shells', which had no effect.Global Air Force UFO Encounters You've Probably Never Heard offirsthandSourced, unconfirmedÓscar Santa María Huertas (as quoted by UAP Gerb)

Where

La Joya Air Base, Arequipa, Peru
16.6°S 71.8°W

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Sources

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