Incident · 14 November 2004 · Pacific Ocean, off San Diego / Baja California

USS Nimitz “Tic Tac” encounter

Also known as Tic Tac, Nimitz, tic-tac, FLIR1

In November 2004, radar operators on the cruiser USS Princeton, part of the USS Nimitz carrier strike group training off southern California, tracked anomalous objects for about two weeks. On 14 November, F/A-18F Super Hornets led by Cmdr. David Fravor, with Lt. Cmdr. Alex Dietrich flying a second jet, were vectored to one of the contacts. The four aircrew watched a white, wingless object about 40 feet long, shaped like a Tic Tac, over a disturbance in the water for roughly five minutes; Fravor says it mirrored his descent and then accelerated out of sight.

Later that day Lt. Chad Underwood filmed an object with his jet's infrared targeting pod. The "FLIR1" video was published by The New York Times in December 2017, alongside the first reporting on the Pentagon's AATIP, and officially released by the Department of Defense on 27 April 2020. Other members of the strike group, including Princeton radar operator Kevin Day, Gary Voorhis, Jason Turner, P. J. Hughes and Ryan Weigelt, have described related observations; their accounts are listed below.

Sceptics such as Mick West have suggested the video shows a distant aircraft distorted by the sensor and that parallax and instrument limits explain the apparent behaviour. Fravor testified about the encounter under oath to the House Oversight Committee in July 2023.

Sources: House Oversight hearing (26 July 2023) · DoD statement (2020) · Wikipedia

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