David Fravor

# David Fravor

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Navy pilot & witness

A retired U.S. Navy commander and a central witness to the 2004 Nimitz encounter. His account of a white, capsule-shaped object became one of the best-known military UFO reports of the modern era.

![David Fravor seated at the right of the witness table during the July 2023 congressional UAP hearing.](<https://uap.fun/nimitz-oversight-hearing.webp>)

U.S. House Oversight Committee, 2023 · Fravor at right

[Photo source](<https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:US_congressional_hearing_on_UAPs_on_26_July_2023_with_Grusch_Graves_and_Fravor.png>) · Public domain in the U.S.

**Known for:** The 2004 Nimitz encounter · The Tic Tac account · Congressional testimony

Sources reviewed September 16, 2026.

## The pilot behind the account

Fravor was commanding officer of the Navy’s VFA-41 squadron during the 2004 Nimitz deployment. His written congressional statement places him in one of two F/A-18F aircraft directed toward an unusual contact by the cruiser USS Princeton. Four aircrew were present across the two jets. This background establishes his professional role and the setting of the report.

Sources: [David Fravor’s written statement to Congress](<https://oversight.house.gov/wp-content/uploads/2023/07/David-Fravor-Statement-for-House-Oversight-Committee.pdf>)

## What he says he saw

Fravor described a white, elongated object near disturbed water, without visible wings or rotors. He said he descended toward it while the other aircraft remained higher, and that the object maneuvered before disappearing. His account also includes information relayed about a later radar contact. Those details have different evidentiary origins: his own visual observation and information received from others should be evaluated separately.

Sources: [David Fravor’s written statement to Congress](<https://oversight.house.gov/wp-content/uploads/2023/07/David-Fravor-Statement-for-House-Oversight-Committee.pdf>)

## The footage and the visual encounter

The familiar Nimitz infrared clip was recorded by a later flight, not by Fravor during his close visual encounter. In April 2020, the Department of Defense officially released that 2004 video alongside two videos from 2015. It described the phenomena in the clips as unidentified. Authentication as Navy footage establishes the provenance of a recording; it does not establish an extraterrestrial explanation. Nor can a short clip, by itself, supply all the distances, speeds, and context needed to reconstruct a separate witness’s experience.

Sources: [David Fravor’s written statement to Congress](<https://oversight.house.gov/wp-content/uploads/2023/07/David-Fravor-Statement-for-House-Oversight-Committee.pdf>) · [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/>)

## Taking the account to the public

Fravor and fellow pilot Alex Dietrich discussed their encounter together in a 2021 60 Minutes interview. Fravor later appeared at the July 26, 2023 House Oversight hearing alongside Ryan Graves and David Grusch. The hearing framed UAP as an issue involving national security, public safety, and government transparency. It gave the public an attributable record of what each witness said. Readers should consult the individual testimony: the witnesses brought different kinds of experience, and an allegation by one should not be assigned to another.

Sources: [Fravor and Alex Dietrich discuss the Nimitz encounter](<https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ygB4EZ7ggig>) · [UAP: implications for national security, public safety, and transparency](<https://oversight.house.gov/hearing/unidentified-anomalous-phenomena-implications-on-national-security-public-safety-and-government-transparency/>)

## What the public record can establish

Fravor’s importance lies in a specific, attributable military witness account, associated with officially released footage from the wider episode. Those records are valuable starting points for investigation, but they do not answer every question about the object. Establishing performance would require reliable measurements and their context; establishing origin would require further evidence still. The useful question is which parts of the account can be independently checked. A sincere, experienced witness and a fully reconstructed event are different things, and the public material should be read with that distinction in view.

Sources: [David Fravor’s written statement to Congress](<https://oversight.house.gov/wp-content/uploads/2023/07/David-Fravor-Statement-for-House-Oversight-Committee.pdf>) · [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/>) · [UAP: implications for national security, public safety, and transparency](<https://oversight.house.gov/hearing/unidentified-anomalous-phenomena-implications-on-national-security-public-safety-and-government-transparency/>)

## Sources & further reading

- [David Fravor’s written statement to Congress](<https://oversight.house.gov/wp-content/uploads/2023/07/David-Fravor-Statement-for-House-Oversight-Committee.pdf>) — U.S. House Oversight Committee · July 26, 2023 · PDF
- [UAP: implications for national security, public safety, and transparency](<https://oversight.house.gov/hearing/unidentified-anomalous-phenomena-implications-on-national-security-public-safety-and-government-transparency/>) — U.S. House Oversight Committee · July 26, 2023 hearing
- [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 27, 2020
- [Fravor and Alex Dietrich discuss the Nimitz encounter](<https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ygB4EZ7ggig>) — CBS News · 60 Minutes · 2021 (video)

## Keep exploring

- [The Nimitz encounter](<https://uap.fun/encounters/nimitz-encounter/>)
- [Leslie Kean](<https://uap.fun/people/leslie-kean/>)

[All people](<https://uap.fun/people/>)

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