Key figures
The former Navy F/A-18 pilot who testified in 2023 and founded Americans for Safe Aerospace. 6 events, newest first.
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Open Ryan Graves as a timeline
Media6 Jan 2026
Americans for Safe Aerospace, in a post by Ryan Graves, announced a white paper arguing that the regulatory framework for pilots keeps about 90 percent of pilot UAP sightings unreported, and that career risk is the main reason pilots stay silent.
Photo: U.S. House Committee on National Security, the Border, and Foreign Affairs, Public domain
Whistleblowers2023
Former Navy F/A-18F pilot Ryan Graves founded Americans for Safe Aerospace, a nonprofit that says it supports pilots who report UAP and pushes for better reporting. Graves says pilots began sending reports to the group because they lacked another channel.
Photo: U.S. House Committee on National Security, the Border, and Foreign Affairs, Public domain
Media16 May 2021
CBS's 60 Minutes aired Bill Whitaker's report in which former Navy pilot Ryan Graves said his squadron saw unidentified objects over restricted airspace off Virginia for years, and Navy aviators David Fravor and Alex Dietrich described the 2004 Nimitz encounter, weeks before the ODNI report.
Photo: U.S. House Committee on National Security, the Border, and Foreign Affairs, Public domain
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
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
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
