USS Nimitz Tic Tac Encounter — November 14, 2004
On November 14, 2004, U.S. Navy F/A-18 pilots from the USS Nimitz carrier strike group tracked a 40-foot oblong white object — the 'Tic Tac' — off the coast of Southern California. The encounter, captured on ATFLIR video as the FLIR1 clip, remains formally unresolved by AARO in 2026.
The USS Nimitz Tic Tac event is one of the most-cited U.S. Navy UAP encounters on the public record. On November 14, 2004, F/A-18F Super Hornet pilots Commander David Fravor and Lieutenant Commander Alex Dietrich from the USS Nimitz carrier strike group, operating off the coast of Southern California, were vectored to investigate radar tracks first detected by the USS Princeton's AN/SPY-1 radar. The object — described by Fravor as resembling a '40-foot Tic Tac mint,' white, smooth, with no wings, no exhaust, and no observable propulsion mechanism — exhibited what the pilots described as instantaneous-acceleration kinematics and apparent radar-track jamming. The 76-second ATFLIR FLIR1 clip from the encounter was released by the Department of Defense in 2017 alongside the GIMBAL and GOFAST videos. AARO has not formally resolved the case; Tic Tac remains the modern bookend of the institutional pre-PURSUE Navy UAP narrative.
“It looked like a 40-foot Tic Tac mint, white, smooth, no wings, no exhaust.”
The encounter timeline (November 14, 2004)
On November 14, 2004, the USS Princeton (CG-59), an Aegis-equipped Ticonderoga-class cruiser operating with the USS Nimitz carrier strike group off Southern California, began tracking unidentified contacts on the AN/SPY-1 radar. The contacts had been observed intermittently for several days but on November 14 the Princeton's senior chief operations specialist, Kevin Day, directed two F/A-18F Super Hornets from Strike Fighter Squadron 41 (VFA-41 'Black Aces') to investigate. Commander David Fravor (Black Ace 01) and Lieutenant Commander Alex Dietrich (Black Ace 02) intercepted at approximately 20,000 feet over the Pacific test range and observed an object 'roughly the size of an F/A-18, but with no wings, no exhaust, and no obvious means of propulsion.'
What the FLIR1 video shows
A subsequent CAP flight by another VFA-41 Super Hornet captured the object on ATFLIR — the 76-second FLIR1 clip, released by the Department of Defense in December 2017 alongside the 2015 GIMBAL and GOFAST videos. The clip shows a white oblong object against a featureless background; the ATFLIR sensor track-locks on the object briefly before the object accelerates out of the sensor field. The clip is hosted on DVIDS and indexed by UAP.WATCH under the legacy DoD release rather than the PURSUE catalog (Tic Tac predates the PURSUE 2026 program).
Pilot testimony
Commander Fravor's public testimony — given at multiple congressional hearings, in the New York Times' 2017 article, and in the 2023 'Beyond Skinwalker Ranch' interview — describes the object as approximately 40 feet long, white, smooth, with no visible propulsion or wings. Fravor reported that as he descended toward the object, it ascended toward him, mirrored his maneuver, then accelerated away at a rate that exceeded his F/A-18F's capability. Lieutenant Commander Dietrich corroborated the encounter's basic facts in her own subsequent public testimony. AN/SPY-1 radar operator Kevin Day has also corroborated the radar-track aspect.
AARO status in 2026
Tic Tac remains formally unresolved by AARO in 2026. AARO Director Dr. Jon Kosloski's 2026 GOFAST resolution did not extend to the 2004 Nimitz encounter, which involves a different sensor (an early ATFLIR variant), different observers, and a different kinematic profile (instantaneous acceleration rather than apparent low-altitude high-speed motion). The full Nimitz mission report remains classified; only the FLIR1 clip and the public pilot testimony are available.