THE ARCHIVE / MARKDOWN EDITION
The Nimitz Encounter
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# The Nimitz Encounter
[View on uap.fun](<https://uap.fun/encounters/nimitz-encounter/>)
Case file 001 · 2004
A routine training mission. An object with no visible wings. An encounter that reached the halls of Congress.
AI-generated illustration; not an image of this encounter.
## At a glance
- **Date:** November 14, 2004
- **Location:** Off Southern California
- **Classification:** Military encounter
- **Record status:** Unidentified in 2020 release
## The story
### A training flight changes course
On November 14, 2004, David Fravor was leading two F/A-18F Super Hornets from the USS Nimitz during training off Southern California. Each aircraft carried a pilot and a weapons systems officer. The USS Princeton interrupted their exercise and directed them toward an unidentified radar contact. According to Fravor, the ship’s controllers told them they had been observing unusual contacts for roughly two weeks. His jets had nothing on their own radars as they approached. At about 20,000 feet, the crews received a call indicating that their aircraft and the contact were close enough to occupy the same radar resolution cell. They began searching outside their cockpits.
[FLIR1 — official Navy infrared footage from the Nimitz encounter](<https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/7/70/FLIR1_Official_UAP_Footage_from_the_USG_for_Public_Release.webm>)
FLIR1, recorded during a later flight on November 14, 2004, and officially released in April 2020. The infrared footage shows an unidentified object tracked by the aircraft’s targeting system. U.S. Navy footage, via Wikimedia Commons; public domain in the United States.
[Video source](<https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:FLIR1_Official_UAP_Footage_from_the_USG_for_Public_Release.webm>)
### White water in a calm sea
Fravor describes clear skies and calm water. A patch of churning white water caught their attention. He compared its outline and size to a submerged airliner, while emphasizing that they saw no underwater object. Above it, a white capsule moved abruptly back and forth. He describes a smooth surface, without visible wings, windows, or propulsion. To convey its appearance, he later compared it to a large white propane tank roughly 40 feet long. That size is his estimate. He initially considered a helicopter, but saw none of the disturbance its rotors would produce on the water.
### Closing the distance
Fravor began a descending turn to investigate while Alex Dietrich kept the second aircraft overhead, watching both his jet and the object. Dietrich later recalled feeling vulnerable because they were unarmed. As Fravor came around, the object changed orientation and started climbing. He interpreted its movement as a response to his approach. With the two circling at different heights, Fravor turned across the circle to intercept it. He estimated that he came within about half a mile before the encounter ended.
### Gone in a moment
Fravor says the object accelerated out of sight in less than half a second. The crew above lost it too. When he looked back down, the disturbed water had disappeared. He recalls watching the object for roughly five minutes. Soon afterward, the Princeton’s controller reported a contact at the jets’ planned patrol point, about 60 miles away. Fravor says the ship had not continuously tracked it across that distance; the contact reappeared at the patrol point. That was information relayed by radio: he never saw the object there. He describes feeling unsettled by movement unlike anything he had encountered in his flying career.
### Back aboard the Nimitz
After returning to the carrier, Fravor told another crew preparing to fly about the encounter. That later flight produced the familiar infrared recording. Although the crews discussed what they had seen, Fravor says they were not questioned as part of an immediate investigation. He says it was not until 2009 that Jay Stratton contacted him to investigate the sighting, roughly five years after the flight.
### From encounter to public record
The New York Times brought the encounter to a wider audience in December 2017. In April 2020, the Department of Defense officially released the infrared recording alongside two other Navy videos. The release confirmed the recordings’ provenance and described the phenomena in them as unidentified. Fravor later recounted the encounter to the House Oversight Committee in July 2023.
David Fravor (right), Ryan Graves (left), and David Grusch (center) at the July 26, 2023, UAP hearing. Still from the U.S. House Committee on Oversight and Accountability’s video; public domain in the United States.
[Image source](<https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:US_congressional_hearing_on_UAPs_on_26_July_2023_with_Grusch_Graves_and_Fravor.png>)
### The question that remains
An authenticated recording and a witness’s interpretation answer different questions. The footage does not, on its own, establish the object’s origin or all the performance described in testimony. This case remains useful precisely because the public material can be examined without treating every associated claim as settled.
## The evidence
### On the record
A Navy infrared video, an official 2020 release statement, and Fravor’s written statement to the House Oversight Committee are publicly available. His statement is a primary source for what he recalls observing.
### Limits of the record
The public video does not show the entire visual encounter. A witness statement is evidence of a reported observation, not an independent measurement of an object’s speed, distance, or origin. The sources below do not establish extraterrestrial technology.
## Timeline
- **14 NOV 2004:** Fravor’s reported encounter during a Nimitz carrier group training mission.
- **16 DEC 2017:** The New York Times publishes its account of the Nimitz encounter alongside reporting on the Pentagon’s UFO research program, bringing Fravor’s story to a wider audience.
- **27 APR 2020:** The Department of Defense officially releases three historical Navy videos.
- **26 JUL 2023:** David Fravor testifies before the House Oversight Committee’s Subcommittee on National Security, the Border, and Foreign Affairs about the Nimitz encounter.
## Sources & interviews
- [2 Navy Airmen and an Object That ‘Accelerated Like Nothing I’ve Ever Seen’](<https://www.nytimes.com/2017/12/16/us/politics/unidentified-flying-object-navy.html>) — The New York Times · December 16, 2017
- [Glowing Auras and ‘Black Money’: The Pentagon’s Mysterious U.F.O. Program](<https://www.nytimes.com/2017/12/16/us/politics/pentagon-program-ufo-harry-reid.html>) — The New York Times · December 16, 2017
- [David Fravor’s interview on Good Morning America](<https://www-cdn.abcnews.com/US/navy-pilot-recalls-encounter-ufo-unlike/story?id=51856514>) — ABC News · Video and article · December 18, 2017 (video)
- [David Fravor and Jeremy Corbell on The Joe Rogan Experience](<https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Eco2s3-0zsQ>) — Joe Rogan Experience \#1361 · YouTube · October 5, 2019 (video)
- [Release of historical Navy videos](<https://www.defense.gov/News/Releases/release/article/2165713/statement-by-the-department-of-defense-on-the-release-of-historical-navy-videos/>) — U.S. Department of Defense · April 2020
- [David Fravor’s interview with Lex Fridman](<https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aB8zcAttP1E>) — Lex Fridman Podcast \#122 · YouTube · September 8, 2020 (video)
- [David Fravor and Alex Dietrich recall the Nimitz encounter](<https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ygB4EZ7ggig>) — 60 Minutes · YouTube · May 16, 2021 (video)
- [David Fravor’s interview with Ryan Graves](<https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KuX4GLHLRz8>) — Merged Podcast · YouTube · July 5, 2023 (video)
- [David Fravor’s written statement](<https://oversight.house.gov/hearing/unidentified-anomalous-phenomena-implications-on-national-security-public-safety-and-government-transparency/david-fravor-statement-for-house-oversight-committee/>) — House Oversight Committee · July 2023
- [David Fravor’s interview with Ward Carroll](<https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=764DtInvj4M>) — Ward Carroll · YouTube · June 12, 2026 (video)
## A note on evidence
Unidentified describes a limit of the available information. It doesn’t identify an origin.
[Next case file: Rendlesham Forest](<https://uap.fun/encounters/rendlesham-forest/>)