Government and military
Encounters reported by Navy aviators and ship crews, including the Nimitz and the released videos. 68 events, newest first.
Military12 May 2020
The Naval Safety Center released eight aviation hazard reports to The War Zone under FOIA. Seven described 2013-2014 encounters between Super Hornets and unidentified objects in training airspace off Virginia and North Carolina; one 2019 report concerned a balloon.
Photo: U.S. Navy photo by Photographer's Mate 2nd Class Daniel J. McLain, Public domain
Military28 Apr 2020
Asked about the Pentagon release of Navy UFO videos, Japanese Defense Minister Taro Kono said no SDF pilot had met a UFO and that he did not really believe in them, but that encounter procedures would be set and Japan would seek the US analysis.
Photo: Prime Minister's Official Residence, CC BY 4.0
Government27 Apr 2020
The Defense Department authorized the release of three Navy infrared videos, FLIR1, Gimbal and GoFast, that had already circulated publicly. It said the objects in them remain unidentified.
Photo: United States Navy, Public domain
Military19 Dec 2019
Chad Underwood, the Navy F/A-18 pilot who recorded the 2004 FLIR1 'Tic Tac' video off southern California, gave his first public interview to New York Magazine. He described locking the object on radar and infrared after a warning from David Fravor and said it did not behave like known aircraft.
Photo: United States Navy, Public domain
Media5 Oct 2019
Retired Navy commander David Fravor recounted his 2004 encounter with the 'Tic Tac' object off California in a long interview on The Joe Rogan Experience episode 1361, with filmmaker Jeremy Corbell.
Photo: U.S. House Committee On Oversight and Accountability, Public domain
Media25 Sep 2019
Kevin Knuth, Robert Powell and Peter Reali published a peer-reviewed paper estimating accelerations implied by witness and sensor accounts, including the 2004 Nimitz case, from roughly 70 g to over 5,000 g. Critics argued some figures rested on doubtful readings of the data.
Photo: United States Navy, Public domain
Government16 Jul 2019
Rep. Mark Walker of North Carolina wrote to Navy Secretary Richard Spencer asking how the Navy logs and investigates UAP reports from its aviators, whether it holds physical evidence, and whether any foreign nation or private company could be behind the objects.
Photo: United States Congress, Public domain
Military14 Jul 2019
Deck logs obtained under FOIA show USS Kidd, Rafael Peralta and other destroyers recording unidentified drones around them near San Clemente Island over several nights from July 14, 2019. In 2021 the Chief of Naval Operations said the aircraft had not been identified.
Photo: San Diego Webcam, CC BY-SA 4.0
Government19 Jun 2019
Senate Intelligence vice chairman Mark Warner and two other senators received a classified Pentagon briefing on Navy pilot encounters with unidentified aircraft. His office said unexplained interference with naval pilots was a safety concern; the Navy confirmed the briefing but gave no details.
Photo: U.S. Senator Mark Warner, Public domain
Media31 May 2019
History premiered a six-part series following Luis Elizondo, Tom DeLonge's To The Stars Academy and former Pentagon official Chris Mellon. It featured Navy pilot David Fravor describing his 2004 encounter and other accounts tied to the Navy cases.
Photo: Max Moszkowicz, CC BY 3.0
Media26 May 2019
The New York Times published on-record accounts from Navy F/A-18 pilots, including Lt. Ryan Graves and Lt. Danny Accoin, of objects seen almost daily off the East Coast in 2014-2015, including a near collision. The Navy said it was updating its guidance for reporting such sightings.
Photo: U.S. House Committee on National Security, the Border, and Foreign Affairs, Public domain
Media26 May 2019
The Black Vault posted Dave Beaty's documentary The Nimitz Encounters in full on YouTube with his permission. The film retells the November 2004 Tic Tac events off southern California through CGI re-creations based on accounts from sailors and naval aviators.
Photo: United States Navy, Public domain
Military23 Apr 2019
The Navy told Politico it was drafting a formal process for pilots and other personnel to report unidentified aircraft entering military ranges. It cited a rise in unauthorized or unidentified aircraft and did not suggest the objects were alien.
Photo: U.S. Navy photo by Mass Communication Specialist 2nd Class James R. Evans, Public domain
Military4 Dec 2018
The U.S. Patent Office granted a Navy-assigned patent naming Salvatore Pais for a 'craft using an inertial mass reduction device'. A patent grant does not show a device works; the patent later lapsed for unpaid fees.
Photo: Salvatore Cezar Pais, Public domain
Military18 Dec 2017
Two days after the New York Times revealed AATIP, retired Navy Cmdr. David Fravor told ABC News about chasing a wingless, roughly 40-foot white object off California in 2004, saying he thought it 'was not from this world.' He later repeated his account under oath to Congress in 2023.
Photo: U.S. House Committee On Oversight and Accountability, Public domain
Media16 Dec 2017
The New York Times reported that the Pentagon had run a little-known Advanced Aerospace Threat Identification Program, funded with about $22 million from 2008 to 2011. The story ran with two Navy videos and said Luis Elizondo had led the program.
Photo: United States Navy, Public domain
Media14 Mar 2017
To The Stars Academy's 2017 SEC offering filing lists physicist Harold Puthoff, known for SRI remote viewing research, as a director from 14 March 2017 and its vice president for science and technology. The company later released Navy UAP videos.
Military7 Nov 2015
On the evening of Nov. 7, 2015, a bright, spreading light was seen and filmed from California to Nevada and Arizona, prompting UFO speculation online. The Navy and Pentagon said it was a scheduled, unarmed Trident II (D5) test missile fired from the submarine USS Kentucky off the coast.
Photo: U.S. Navy, Public domain
Media14 Mar 2015
Former Navy aviator Paco Chierici published 'There I Was: The X-Files Edition' on the Fighter Sweep site, retelling squadron mate Cmdr. David Fravor's account of chasing a white object off southern California in November 2004. It appeared more than two years before the New York Times story.
Photo: U.S. Navy photo by Mass Communication Specialist 3rd Class John Phillip Wagner Jr., Public domain
MilitaryJan 2015
Navy F/A-18 crews training off the U.S. East Coast recorded the infrared videos later known as Gimbal and GoFast. Pilots in the squadron, including Ryan Graves, have said they saw unidentified objects repeatedly in 2014 and 2015.
Photo: United States Navy, Public domain
WhistleblowersJan 2015
Retired Rear Adm. Tim Gallaudet testified in 2024 that in January 2015, during a pre-deployment exercise, Fleet Forces Command emailed commanders about near-midair collisions with unknown objects, attaching the 'Go Fast' video. He said the email vanished the next day.
Photo: United States Department of Commerce, Public domain
Military11 Nov 2014
A Chilean Navy helicopter crew on coastal patrol west of Santiago filmed an object with an infrared camera for about 10 minutes. Chile's CEFAA studied the footage for two years and called it unidentified; skeptics later argued it was an airliner leaving contrails.
Military2014
Former Navy pilot Ryan Graves testified that two VFA-11 F/A-18Fs took evasive action when a pilot saw a dark gray cube inside a clear sphere hovering at the entry point to training area W-72 off Virginia Beach. He said the squadron filed a safety report but got no official response.
Photo: U.S. Navy photo by Lt. Cmdr. Josh Hammond, Public domain
MilitaryNov 2004
Navy F/A-18F crews from the USS Nimitz strike group, cued by the cruiser USS Princeton's radar, reported intercepting a smooth white object they could not identify. Another crew recorded the infrared video the Pentagon later released as FLIR1.
Photo: United States Navy, Public domain
Media9 Aug 1989
20th Century Fox released James Cameron's The Abyss, in which oil-rig divers helping the U.S. Navy reach a lost nuclear submarine encounter a non-human intelligence living deep in the ocean, an early big-screen take on underwater unidentified craft.
Photo: Towpilot, CC BY-SA 3.0
