On November 14, 2004, Commander David Fravor and his wingman pilot took off from the USS Nimitz, which was conducting maneuvers south of San Diego. Fravor, the commanding officer of Strike Fighter Squadron 41, known as the Black Aces, was flying a brand-new Super Hornet as part of an air defense exercise. The exercise pitted two “good guys” against two “bad guys” roughly 70 miles off the coast, between San Diego and Ensenada.
Midway through the exercise, the pilots received an unexpected communication from radar operators aboard the USS Princeton. Fravor recalled, “The Princeton control comes up and says, ‘We’re going to suspend training. We have real-world tasking.'” Without explanation, the pilots were redirected to a new destination, heading west, with Fravor and his junior pilot scanning their radars for any signs of what they were now tasked to find.
Despite the advanced capabilities of the Princeton’s Aegis Spy 1 radar system—capable of tracking an object as small as a baseball at an altitude of 80,000 feet—the jets detected nothing. The pilots, now “flying blind,” were left to visually search the skies. The radar system soon reached a “merge plot” situation, where the pilots’ aircraft and the unidentified object appeared to occupy the same space, forcing them to rely solely on their eyes.
Far below, they spotted what appeared to be a plane crash or a submerging submarine. But then, Fravor’s weapons officer in the rear seat noticed something unusual: a Tic Tac-shaped object, white, with no visible wings or rotors. Fravor described his reaction: “I go, holy, what is that? And he goes, I don’t know.”
The object, initially hovering near the surface, began moving in ways that defied conventional aerodynamics. “This thing would go instantaneous from one way to another, similar to if you threw a ping pong ball against a wall,” Fravor recounted. As the pilots circled the object, it suddenly reacted to their presence, mirroring their movements before accelerating aggressively and disappearing at an astonishing speed.
As they continued their mission, heading toward a prearranged rendezvous location known as the CAP point, the situation took an eerie turn. The controller from the Princeton radioed in, saying, “You’re not going to believe this, but that thing is at your CAP point.” Fravor and his team were stunned. The Tic Tac had not only vanished from their sight but had also reappeared 60 miles away in under a minute, suggesting it had traveled at speeds of up to 3,700 miles per hour.
Back aboard the Nimitz, Fravor and his fellow pilots shared their encounter with the rest of the squadron. The next crew, preparing for their own mission, listened intently, taking the report seriously. One of the weapons systems officers, determined to locate the mysterious object, set out with the next jets, armed with a targeting pod equipped with an infrared sensor and camera. Despite the object’s ability to jam radar, they managed to lock onto it, capturing the now-famous video footage.
Reflecting on the encounter, Fravor expressed a mixture of awe and uncertainty. “You’ve got something that can accelerate and disappear and then show up 60 miles away… We don’t have that. What was this? There is a capability out there. Not saying it’s from outer space, but not saying it’s from here either.
