Nimitz Tic Tac encounter
From the UAP Encyclopedia, the open encyclopedia of UFO and UAP history · 🛸 Case
Contents 7
| Type | Case |
|---|---|
| Also known as | Tic Tac, USS Nimitz encounter, Nimitz encounter |
| On the Timeline | 6 events, 1991–2022 |
The USS Nimitz UFO incident, often called the "Tic Tac" encounter, took place on 14 November 2004 off the coast of southern California, when U.S. Navy pilots from the aircraft carrier USS Nimitz reported seeing a white, wingless, oval object that moved in ways they could not explain. One of the infrared videos taken that day, known as "FLIR1", became one of three Navy videos officially released by the Pentagon in 2020. The case is among the best-documented modern UAP reports.[1][2]
Background
In November 2004 the Nimitz Carrier Strike Group was training off southern California. Crew of the guided-missile cruiser USS Princeton, which carried the advanced AN/SPY-1B radar and Aegis combat system, said they had been tracking unusual contacts for about a week or more before the encounter. Some personnel later described the contacts as descending rapidly from very high altitude.[1][3]
The encounter
On 14 November, Cmdr. David Fravor, commanding officer of a strike fighter squadron, and his wingman Lt. Cmdr. Alex Dietrich, each flying an F/A-18F Super Hornet with a weapons officer, were directed to investigate a contact. Fravor said they saw a disturbance in the water below and, above it, a white oval object about 12 metres (40 feet) long with no visible wings or exhaust. As he descended toward it, he said, the object rose, mirroring his movements, then accelerated away and vanished. The pilots watched it for about five minutes. The Princeton reportedly then detected the object at the pilots' planned rendezvous point, many kilometres away, shortly afterwards.[1][2][4]
Later that day a second flight launched, including an aircraft equipped with an advanced infrared targeting pod. Its weapons systems officer, Lt. Chad Underwood, recorded the object on infrared video for a little over a minute. Underwood said he did not see the object with his own eyes because he was focused on the sensor, and he nicknamed it the "Tic Tac" because of its shape on the screen.[1][5]
Release of the video
A copy of the FLIR1 video circulated on an online UFO forum from around 2007. On 16 December 2017 The New York Times published it alongside an article in which Fravor said the object "accelerated like nothing I've ever seen".[2][6] In September 2019 Pentagon spokeswoman Susan Gough confirmed that the videos had been made by Navy aviators and showed unidentified aerial phenomena.[1][7] On 27 April 2020 the Department of Defense formally released FLIR1 together with the Gimbal and GoFast videos, saying the objects remained "unidentified".[8]
Later testimony
Fravor and Dietrich have described the encounter in interviews, and Princeton crew members later gave their own accounts, including claims that data recordings were collected from the ship soon after the event.[3][9] On 26 July 2023 Fravor testified under oath to the House Oversight Committee alongside David Grusch and Ryan Graves, saying the Princeton's radar had detected objects dropping from about 80,000 feet in under a second and that "the technology that we faced was far superior than anything that we had".[1][10]
Explanations
No official explanation has been published. Skeptic Joe Nickell argued in 2018 that the account contained errors and inconsistencies, and analyst Mick West has suggested that infrared glare and distant aircraft can explain features of the Navy videos, though not all features of the eyewitness reports.[1][11] Supporters point to the multiple witnesses, the radar tracking and the experience of the pilots. The case helped prompt the Navy's 2019 decision to encourage pilots to report UAP and the later creation of the UAP Task Force.[1]
On the UAP Timeline
- Kevin Thomas and the Nimitz black triangle (1991) — A Nimitz petty officer says he saw a huge black triangle rise out of the ocean.
- USS Princeton data recordings claim (14 November 2004) — USS Princeton radar staff say two men took the Tic Tac encounter data recordings.
- Underwater Tic Tac near Haiti (January 2010) — A Navy sailor sees a Tic Tac-shaped object under the water near Haiti.
- Sarfatti's slow-light Tic Tac theory (20 March 2020) — Physicist Jack Sarfatti suggests the Tic Tac used a metamaterial that slows light.
- Karson Kammerzell's Tic Tac account (30 November 2020) — A Navy communications operator describes the Tic Tac event from the USS Princeton.
- USS Ronald Reagan orange orb (9 May 2022) — USS Ronald Reagan crew members report a fiery orange UAP above the deck.
References
- USS Nimitz UFO incident — Wikipedia · en.wikipedia.org · archived copy
- "2 Navy Airmen and an Object That 'Accelerated Like Nothing I've Ever Seen'", The New York Times (16 Dec 2017) · nytimes.com · archived copy
- "The Truth About the Navy's Nimitz Encounter UFO Sightings", Popular Mechanics · popularmechanics.com · archived copy
- "The story behind the 'Tic Tac' UFO sighting by Navy pilots in 2004", CBS News (26 Jul 2023) · cbsnews.com · archived copy
- "Navy Pilot Who Filmed the 'Tic Tac' UFO Speaks", New York Magazine (19 Dec 2019) · nymag.com · archived copy
- "What Is Up With Those Pentagon UFO Videos?", Wired (17 Feb 2018) · wired.com · archived copy
- "Those UFO videos are real, the Navy says, but please stop saying 'UFO'", The Washington Post (18 Sep 2019) · washingtonpost.com · archived copy
- "Statement by the Department of Defense on the Release of Historical Navy Videos" (27 Apr 2020) · war.gov · archived copy
- Christopher Mellon, "The military keeps encountering UFOs. Why doesn't the Pentagon care?", The Washington Post (9 Mar 2018) · washingtonpost.com · archived copy
- "Officials and lawmakers push for more government transparency on UFOs", CNN (26 Jul 2023) · cnn.com · archived copy
- Joe Nickell, "Navy Pilot's 2004 UFO: A Comedy of Errors", Skeptical Inquirer (2018) · web.archive.org · archived copy
This page was last edited on 29 October 2026. Articles are written in our own words from the sources listed under References; disputed claims are attributed to the people who made them.
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