Person
Alex Dietrich
Also known as Dietrich
- Lt. Cmdr., U.S. Navy F/A-18 pilot (ret.)
Alex Dietrich is a retired U.S. Navy lieutenant commander and F/A-18F pilot who served 20 years, including two combat deployments with VFA-41 over Iraq and Afghanistan. On 14 November 2004 she flew the second Super Hornet in David Fravor's flight during the USS Nimitz "Tic Tac" encounter. While Fravor spiralled down towards the object, she stayed high as cover, giving a second, overhead view of the white, wingless object over a patch of disturbed water before it shot away.
She stayed in the Navy after the encounter and, by Fravor's account, was invited to the Pentagon several times to discuss it and view other UAP videos. Around 2016 she contacted Fravor, which led to Luis Elizondo reaching out to him. She went public in 2021, appearing with Fravor on CBS's 60 Minutes ahead of the ODNI's preliminary UAP assessment. Later that year she went through the leaked event summary in a long conversation with the sceptic Mick West. She also appears in The Age of Disclosure (2025).
She is notably measured. She says the object seemed to lack any flight surfaces or propulsion and "appeared to respond" to Fravor's jet. She also says it could have been a natural phenomenon or human activity, that she is not "a UFO person" or a whistleblower, and that she talks about it mainly to make it normal for pilots to report what they see. She saw the object for only about 10 seconds as a junior wingman, defers to Fravor's longer account, and calls Mick West's parallax theory as plausible as any. She and Fravor reject AARO's suggestion that the Tic Tac was American technology. Senate staffer Kirk McConnell says their account is what convinced him.
Sources: Fravor written statement and testimony (2023) · Reuters (June 2021) · November 13, 2024 hearing (Gallaudet) · Disclosure Forum 2026
Facts and claims
- claimed David Fravor testified under oath that Dietrich was the other pilot in the 2004 Nimitz encounter, and that she later contacted him to ask whether he had been approached by investigators. — David Fravor Source: doc-fravor-statement-2023-07-26.pdf
- claimed Fravor's written statement says Dietrich told him she had been invited to the Pentagon multiple times to discuss the event and view other UAP videos. — David Fravor Source: David Fravor — written statement, House Oversight hearing (July 26, 2023)
- claimed She told Reuters in 2021 that when Fravor turned to engage the object “it appeared to respond in a way that we didn't recognize”, because it seemed to lack “any visible flight control surfaces or means of propulsion”. — Alex Dietrich Source: thejakartapost.com (archived)
- claimed In the same interview she said: “We don't know what it was, but it could have been a natural phenomenon in human activity. But the point was that it was weird, and we couldn't recognize it”, and “I don't consider myself a whistle blower ... I don't identify as a UFO person.” — Alex Dietrich Source: thejakartapost.com (archived)
- claimed She said she speaks about the encounter to reduce stigma: people “don't want to be the kooky UFO person, so I guess I'm trying to normalize it by talking about it.” — Alex Dietrich Source: thejakartapost.com (archived)
- claimed Tim Gallaudet testified in 2024 that when AARO suggested the Tic Tac might be American technology, the two witnesses, Fravor and Dietrich, “were convinced it was otherwise”; Marik von Rennenkampff says both recall pitot-tube-like protrusions in the higher-quality video. — Tim Gallaudet Source: Hearing transcript: “Unidentified Anomalous Phenomena: Exposing the Truth”
- claimed Former Senate staffer Kirk McConnell says sitting down with Fravor and Dietrich made the Tic Tac the case that convinced him more than any other. — Kirk McConnell Source: UAP & National Security: Mellon, Gallaudet, von Rennenkampff & McConnell at Disclosure Forum 2026 at 1:21:26
- claimed On 60 Minutes in May 2021 she said the object was “unidentified and that's why it was so unsettling to us”, described its movement as having “no predictable trajectory … like a ping pong ball”, and said that, unarmed, she “felt the vulnerability of not having anything to defend ourselves”. — Alex Dietrich Source: 60 Minutes: Navy pilots recall “unsettling” 2004 UAP sighting (Fravor and Dietrich, 16 May 2021) at 2:25
- claimed She says that back aboard ship the crews were ridiculed within half an hour, with cartoons and screenings of Men in Black and Independence Day. — Alex Dietrich Source: 60 Minutes: Navy pilots recall “unsettling” 2004 UAP sighting (Fravor and Dietrich, 16 May 2021) at 4:43
- claimed She says she was visual for only about 10 seconds, picking up the small, fast object as it crossed the roiling water, and that Fravor, flying lead, may have watched it for minutes before; she was a lieutenant junior grade, new to the squadron, and defers to his account. — Alex Dietrich Source: Alex Dietrich with Mick West: the Nimitz event summary, time differences and other accounts (June 2021) at 28:42
- claimed She says her first suspicion on landing was that they had been vectored into a live range and the object was a surface- or subsurface-to-air missile, and that Pentagon officials from ONI, AATIP and the UAP Task Force have since assured her that was ruled out. — Alex Dietrich Source: Alex Dietrich with Mick West: the Nimitz event summary, time differences and other accounts (June 2021) at 39:29
- claimed Asked by sceptic Mick West about his parallax-and-size theory for Fravor's sighting, she said it is “just as plausible as any of the others” she has heard, and that “there is no big conspiracy”. — Alex Dietrich Source: Alex Dietrich with Mick West: the Nimitz event summary, time differences and other accounts (June 2021) at 51:04
- claimed She says she flew two combat deployments with VFA-41 from USS Nimitz, in 2005 and 2007, and that her first training flight was on 11 September 2001. — Alex Dietrich Source: UFOs and the Military: A Combat Pilot's Experience with the Unknown — Alex Dietrich (American Veterans Center, 2025) at 5:26
- claimed In 2025 she described the object as about 30 to 40 feet long, smooth and matte white, “no windows, no flight control surfaces, no visible forms of propulsion”, changing speed, altitude and direction seemingly instantaneously; asked what it was: “I have no idea”, though she says she would accept “some non-prosaic … otherworldly explanation”. — Alex Dietrich Source: UFOs and the Military: A Combat Pilot's Experience with the Unknown — Alex Dietrich (American Veterans Center, 2025) at 10:56
Connected files
Claims
Documentaries
- The Age of Disclosure (appears in)
Incidents
- USS Nimitz “Tic Tac” encounter (witness)
People
- David Fravor (flew with) — She flew the second Super Hornet in Fravor's flight during the 2004 Tic Tac encounter
- Chad Underwood (served with) — Both flew F/A-18s with VFA-41, the Black Aces, from USS Nimitz
- Kirk McConnell (briefed) — Kirk McConnell says sitting down with Fravor and Dietrich made the Tic Tac the case that convinced him
- Tim Gallaudet (statements by)
Videos
- 60 Minutes: Navy pilots recall “unsettling” 2004 UAP sighting (Fravor and Dietrich, 16 May 2021) (appears in)
- Alex Dietrich with Mick West: the Nimitz event summary, time differences and other accounts (June 2021) (appears in)
- Unidentified Anomalous Phenomena: Exposing the Truth (discussed in)
- UFOs and the Military: A Combat Pilot's Experience with the Unknown — Alex Dietrich (American Veterans Center, 2025) (appears in)
- Christopher Mellon on the strongest evidence we are not alone (Unveiled clip, 2026) (discussed in)
- UAP & National Security: Mellon, Gallaudet, von Rennenkampff & McConnell at Disclosure Forum 2026 (discussed in)