What happened
For several days in November 2004, radar operators on the cruiser USS Princeton tracked targets that dropped from altitudes above 24 kilometers (80,000 feet) to sea level within seconds. On November 14 two F/A-18F fighters from the carrier USS Nimitz were sent to the area. Commander David Fravor and Lieutenant Commander Alex Dietrich saw above churning water a smooth white object about 12 meters (40 feet) long, shaped like a “Tic Tac” mint, with no wings and no visible means of propulsion. When Fravor descended toward it, the object shot up abruptly and disappeared. In the afternoon another pilot, Chad Underwood, recorded an infrared video known as “FLIR1.” The footage was revealed by the “New York Times” in 2017.
Witnesses
Commander David Fravor, Lieutenant Commander Alex Dietrich, and two other members of the fighter crews, Lieutenant Chad Underwood, radar operators on the USS Princeton, including Kevin Day.
Explanations and hypotheses
The Navy confirmed the authenticity of the footage and classified the object as an unidentified aerial phenomenon. Skeptics, including Mick West, believe the FLIR1 video shows a distant aircraft and that the pilots’ accounts were distorted by memory over the years. Proponents stress that the accounts of several pilots agree with the radar data. The Pentagon has still not offered an explanation.
Unexplained There is no convincing explanation.
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