An unidentified flying object appears in a photo first obtained by The New York Times.
A routine US Navy training mission off the coast of Southern California in November 2004 turned into one of the most discussed unidentified flying object (UFO) cases in modern history.
Nearly two decades later, the incident is still debated because there is no confirmed explanation for what the pilots and radar operators reported.The event, now widely known as the “Tic Tac” incident, involved numerous Navy personnel, advanced radar systems and infrared video footage. While US defense officials have investigated hundreds of unidentified aerial sightings over the years, the 2004 standoff remains one of the best-known cases.Although this event occurred in 2004, it remained largely unknown for years. The case attracted global attention in 2017 after The New York Times reported on previously undisclosed Pentagon programs studying unidentified aerial phenomena (UAPs) and published details of the incident along with a video.
What happened
On November 14, 2004, retired U.S. Navy Commander David Fravor was commanding an F/A-18F squadron from the aircraft carrier USS Nimitz during a training exercise about 100 miles southwest of San Diego.
Before the voyage, radar operators aboard the USS Princeton were tracking unidentified objects. Fravor said during a 2021 interview that the radar detected multiple aerial objects that appeared to descend from about 80,000 feet in a very short time before disappearing.Fravor and fellow pilot Lieutenant Commander Alex Dietrich are sent to investigate.
Tic Tac object.
When the pilots arrived at the site, Fravor said they noticed an unusual patch of turbulent water.
Hovering above him was a small white object that reminded him of Tic Tac candy.“I said, ‘Dude, do you see that thing over there?’ And we saw this little white thing that looked like a tic-tac. Fravor later recalled that it was just kind of moving over the whitewater area.According to Fravor, four crew members in two planes observed the object for about five minutes.He said it had no wings, no visible markings and no exhaust plume.
It appears to be about the size of his F/A-18 fighter jet.
Representative image of AI
She responded
Fravor said he moved to get a closer look, but the object seemed to respond to his maneuvers. “She knew we were there,” he later told investigators.While trying to intercept it, the object accelerated rapidly and disappeared from sight. According to his account, radar later detected him about 60 miles away in less than a minute.Years later, Fravor said he still cannot explain what he saw.
“I’ve never seen anything in my life, in my history of aviation, that has the performance and acceleration that this thing doesn’t have wings,” he told ABC News in 2017.He also said, “I think it’s not of this world,” adding that he couldn’t say what the object was.
Infrared video
After confronting Fravor, another seaplane piloted by Commander Chad Underwood was dispatched to the area.His plane recorded infrared footage of the object. The grainy video later became one of the most widely shared UFO videos after it went public and was eventually acknowledged by the Pentagon.Underwood also said he received radar jamming indicators during the encounter.
No explanation yet
In July 2023, Fravor appeared before a US House of Representatives hearing regarding unidentified anomalous phenomena. He told lawmakers that what he and the other pilots witnessed appeared to go beyond known aviation technology.“I think what we went through was… far beyond the physical science and capabilities that we had at that time, and that we currently have or will have in the next 10 to 20 years,” he testified, according to CBS.The Pentagon has not yet said that Tic Tac’s object was extraterrestrial. Many reported unidentified aerial phenomena are eventually explained as ordinary objects or events, US officials said. However, some cases remain unresolved due to limited or incomplete data.However, the 2004 Tic-Tac standoff remains one of the most closely examined cases because it involved numerous trained military witnesses, radar tracking and infrared footage, yet no definitive explanation has been publicly confirmed.
