The November 2004 Incident
On November 14, 2004, approximately 100 miles southwest of San Diego, California, the USS Nimitz Carrier Strike Group encountered an unidentified aerial object tracked on multiple military sensor systems. The incident occurred in the Pacific Ocean while the strike group was conducting routine operations.
Prior to the visual encounter, radar operators aboard the USS Princeton, the strike group’s guided-missile cruiser, had been tracking anomalous radar returns for approximately two weeks beginning in early November 2004. The Princeton’s AN/SPY-1B radar, a component of the Aegis Combat System, recorded tracks exhibiting flight characteristics inconsistent with conventional aircraft, according to operational records.
The Encounter
On the morning of November 14, 2004, Commander David Fravor, Commanding Officer of Strike Fighter Squadron Forty-One, and Lieutenant Commander Alex Dietrich, wingman pilot, were vectored from the USS Nimitz to investigate radar contacts. The two F/A-18F Super Hornet pilots intercepted an object approximately 40 feet in length, white in color, and oblong in shape, characteristics that led to the object’s subsequent informal designation as the “Tic Tac.”
In testimony before Congress on July 26, 2023, Commander Fravor described the object as hovering above an ocean disturbance with no visible propulsion systems, wings, or exhaust plumes. As Fravor maneuvered his aircraft to investigate, the object ascended vertically, matching the trajectory of his approach, and subsequently accelerated beyond the performance envelope of his F/A-18F before disappearing from view.
The encounter occurred at approximately 10:00 a.m. local time and lasted approximately five minutes from the pilots’ initial visual contact to the object’s departure.
The FLIR1 Video
A second F/A-18F Super Hornet, piloted by another crew member with Weapons Systems Officer Lieutenant Commander Chad Underwood, subsequently launched from the USS Nimitz with an equipped AN/ASQ-228 ATFLIR (Advanced Targeting Forward-Looking Infrared) pod. Underwood recorded approximately 90 seconds of infrared video of an aerial object consistent with the pilots’ descriptions. The video was designated FLIR1 in official military records.
The infrared footage shows a heat signature of an oblong object moving across the camera field of view. The video displays no visible exhaust plume, propulsion system, or conventional flight surfaces, visual characteristics inconsistent with known aircraft categories in U.S. military inventory as of 2004.
The infrared video circulated within military and intelligence communities for years before unauthorized release. The Pentagon confirmed the video’s authenticity in subsequent official statements.
Official Acknowledgment and Public Disclosure
On April 27, 2020, the Department of Defense officially released three videos to “clear up any misconceptions by the public on whether or not the footage that has been circulating was real.” The release included FLIR1, recorded during the November 2004 Nimitz encounter, along with two additional videos from separate encounters in 2015. The Department of Defense official statement characterized the objects in these videos as “unidentified.”
The original public disclosure of the Nimitz encounter occurred in a New York Times article published on December 16, 2017, authored by reporters Ralph Blumenthal and Helen Cooper. The article revealed the existence of the Pentagon’s Advanced Aerospace Threat Identification Program (AATIP), a classified program operated by the Department of Defense from 2007 to 2012 to investigate unidentified aerial phenomena. The reporting included interviews with military witnesses and reproduction of classified infrared video footage.
Government Assessment and Investigation
The Office of the Director of National Intelligence (ODNI) released a preliminary assessment of unidentified aerial phenomena on June 25, 2021, in response to congressional request. The ODNI assessment analyzed U.S. Government reporting of incidents from November 2004 through March 2021. The dataset encompassed 144 reported UAP incidents during this timeframe. The preliminary assessment stated that “UAP clearly pose a safety of flight issue and may pose a challenge to U.S. national security.”
The ODNI assessment acknowledged that “a small amount of data appear to show UAP demonstrating acceleration or a degree of signature management,” though it noted that “additional rigorous analysis is necessary to determine the nature and validity of these data.”
Congressional Testimony
The Nimitz encounter became the focus of renewed official attention beginning in 2017 with the New York Times disclosure. On July 26, 2023, the House Oversight Committee’s Subcommittee on National Security, the Border, and Foreign Affairs held a public hearing titled “Unidentified Anomalous Phenomena: Implications on National Security, Public Safety, and Government Transparency.”
Commander David Fravor testified under oath regarding the November 2004 encounter. In his sworn testimony, Fravor stated that the technology he encountered was “far superior than anything that we had” in the U.S. Navy inventory and “anything that we are looking to develop in the next 10+ years.”
Fravor testified that following the 2004 encounter, no formal incident report was filed. He characterized the response as “a standard debrief where backseaters went down to the carrier intel center and briefed what would have happened and that was it.”
Additional witnesses, including former Navy pilot Ryan Graves, testified about separate East Coast encounters in 2015, citing the Nimitz case as precedent for official acknowledgment of similar incidents.
Classification and Public Record Status
The November 2004 Nimitz encounter remains classified in its operational details within certain military and intelligence records. However, the incident is documented in multiple public records, including official Department of Defense video releases, congressional hearing transcripts, and statements by named military officers in public testimony.
The case has been cited in official government assessments and remains a reference point for U.S. government policy on unidentified aerial phenomena reporting and investigation protocols.