Video · 14 November 2004

FLIR1: the Nimitz “Tic Tac” video (official U.S. Navy release)

Also known as FLIR1, FLIR video, Tic Tac video

U.S. Navy, NAVAIR FOIA Reading Room · 14 November 2004 · 1 min · Watch the original

The 76-second infrared and TV-camera video of the 14 November 2004 Nimitz encounter, recorded from the targeting pod of an F/A-18F flown by Lt. Chad Underwood about an hour after David Fravor's sighting. It circulated after an unauthorized release in 2007 and was published by To The Stars Academy and The New York Times in December 2017. The Department of Defense authorized its official release on 27 April 2020, with the Gimbal and GoFast videos, and said "the aerial phenomena observed in the videos remain characterized as 'unidentified.'"

The clip has no cockpit audio. This copy comes from the Naval Air Systems Command FOIA reading room.

Sources: NAVAIR FOIA Reading Room · DoD statement of 27 April 2020

Key moments

  1. 0:00 The F/A-18's targeting pod tracks the object in infrared (IR): a small white-hot shape with no visible wings or exhaust plume.
  2. 0:16 The pod switches to its TV camera and narrows in: the object shows as a dark, elongated shape.
  3. 0:44 Back in infrared, the pod keeps the object near the centre of the frame.
  4. 1:14 The object slips out of the tracking brackets to the left and the track is lost. Underwood says “It broke my lock by zooming off to the left”, though he has also said he did not see it accelerate with his own eyes.

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