IncidentUSS Nimitz Tic Tac Incident (14 November 2004)
F/A-18F pilots from VFA-41 'Black Aces' off the USS Nimitz visually confirmed and intercepted a white, 40-foot, wingless oblong object that had been tracked by the USS Princeton's AN/SPY-1 radar for two weeks dropping from 80,000 feet to sea level in less than a second.
What's documented
Between 10 and 16 November 2004, the USS Princeton, an Aegis-class cruiser deployed with the Nimitz Carrier Strike Group off Baja California, repeatedly tracked targets descending from approximately 80,000 feet to sea level in less than one second, then hovering at 20,000 feet. On 14 November 2004, Senior Chief Operations Specialist Kevin Day vectored two F/A-18F Super Hornets from VFA-41 ‘Black Aces’ to intercept. The lead aircraft was flown by Cmdr. David Fravor (CO of VFA-41) and Lt. Cmdr. Jim Slaight; the wing aircraft was flown by Lt. Cmdr. Alex Dietrich and Lt. Cmdr. Mike Day. At the intercept point Fravor and Slaight visually observed a white object, approximately 40 feet long, shaped like a Tic Tac, hovering over a churned patch of ocean. The FLIR1 video, captured by a follow-up sortie’s AN/AAS-46 targeting pod, was officially declassified by the U.S. Navy in April 2020.
Notable & intriguing
-
Senior Chief Operations Specialist Kevin Day of the USS Princeton tracked, over an 8-day period, dozens of targets dropping from above 80,000 feet to sea level in less than one second — an acceleration on the order of 5,000 g, beyond the structural tolerance of any known crewed or uncrewed aircraft.
Cmdr. David Fravor and Sr. Chief Kevin Day testimony, Joe Rogan Experience #1361, 6 November 2019; AAWSAP/AATIP executive report, 2009
-
Cmdr. David Fravor, commanding officer of VFA-41 'Black Aces,' described the object in sworn testimony as 'a white Tic Tac, about 40 feet long, with no wings, no exhaust, no rotors.' His wingman Lt. Cmdr. Alex Dietrich gave a corroborating account on '60 Minutes' on 16 May 2021.
House Intelligence Subcommittee on Counterterrorism, Counterintelligence, and Counterproliferation hearing, 17 May 2022; *60 Minutes*, CBS, 16 May 2021
-
The FLIR1 video, captured by an F/A-18F's AN/AAS-46 ATFLIR pod on the follow-up sortie 60 nautical miles from the original intercept, was officially declassified by the Office of Naval Intelligence on 27 April 2020 via Pentagon press release.
U.S. Department of Defense press release, 27 April 2020; *The New York Times*, 27 April 2020