The Nimitz 'Tic Tac' Encounter

In November 2004, the USS Nimitz Carrier Strike Group tracked unknown objects off Southern California. On November 14, radar aboard the USS Princeton reportedly locked a contact that dropped tens of thousands of feet in under a second. Cmdr. David Fravor, Lt. Cmdr. Alex Dietrich, and their weapons systems officers diverted to investigate.

The pilots described a smooth, white, oblong object—roughly the size of an F/A-18—with no wings and no exhaust plume, moving over disturbed water. Fravor reported the object mirroring maneuvers before accelerating away faster than his aircraft could pursue. A later infrared recording, widely known as FLIR1 or the “Tic Tac” video, was among the Navy clips the Department of Defense authorized for public release in 2020.

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