On November 14, 2004 the USS Nimitz Carrier Strike Group, which included the nuclear powered aircraft carrier USS Princeton, was participating in routine drills about 100 miles southwest of San Diego prior to their long term deployment to the Persian Gulf. Retired Navy Commander David Fravor and his wingman Lt. Commander Alex Dietrich were on a routine training flight. At about 2:00 PM both Commander Fravor and Lt. Commander Dietrich received new orders from the operations officer aboard the USS Princeton who stated that they were being redirected for a “real world task.” During the exchange the operations officer requested to know if the F/A 18F super hornets were armed with “live” weapons. The weapons officers who were accompanying the pilots responded that the fighters were unarmed, which is protocol when on training flights.
They were advised that the advanced radar on the Princeton had located “multiple anomalous aerial vehicles” and were given new coordinates to intercept and investigate the aircraft. When they arrived what they saw would baffle them for the rest of their lives. They were confronted with a strange flying craft that was about the same size as their fighters but it had no wings and no exhaust. In fact, it looked like a large Tic Tac flying mint. Commander Fravor asked his weapons officer who was in the second seat behind him “Dude, do you, do you see that thing down there?” His weapons officer confirmed that he also was seeing the strange object.
When Commander Fravor tried to intercept the craft, it accelerated so quickly that it seemed to disappear. Commander Fravor and his accompanying wingman attempted to chase the unknown object, but the fighter jets were no match. Keep in mind that when this incident happened, the F/A 18F super hornet was among the most advanced and fastest fighter planes in the world. Shortly afterwards the Princeton reported that in less than a minute the anomalous craft had traveled over 60 miles away.
Commander Fravor, now retired was invited to speak about his experience before the House Oversight Committee’s national security subcommittee. During that testimony Commander Fravor stated “I think what we experienced was, like I said, well beyond the material science and the capabilities that we had at the time, that we have currently or that we’re going to have in the next 10 to 20 years,”
Lt. Commander Alex Dietrich retired, was able to capture video of the UFO using her highly sensitive infrared camera onboard. The footage that Lt. Commander Dietrich was able to collect has been authenticated by the US Navy and been widely disseminated on several social media platforms including YouTube, Facebook and Twitter, now known as X.
