The ‘Tic Tac’ UFO
In an astounding turn of events, a U.S. Navy report said that a UFO spotted 15 years ago was an unknown aircraft which was not listed in any country’s military inventory. The UFO displayed advanced aerodynamic performance, advanced propulsion, and the ability to cloak itself and become invisible to the human eye.
Not only that, this unknown craft, absent of any visible means to generate lift, was also able to operate undersea without being detected by the Navy’s most advanced sensors.
For about six days in November 2004, the U.S. Navy’s Nimitz Carrier Strike Group (CSG) was performing routine operations off the western coast of the United States to prepare for deployment to the Arabian Sea. The Nimitz is a Navy cruiser.
The USS Princeton aircraft carrier detected multiple Anomalous Aerial Vehicles (AAVs) – unidentified flying objects (UFOs) to you and me – on several occasions near the CSG. These mysterious flying crafts would descend very rapidly, streaking downward from an altitude of about 60,000 feet to about 50 feet in mere seconds.
The AAVs would then hover and appear stationary on the radar for a short period of time before shooting away again at high speeds and turn rates.
On November 14, the USS Princeton once again detected an AAV and launched two Boeing F/A-18F Super Hornet planes which were returning from a training mission to check out the AAV.
The USS Princeton took over control of the fighter jets from the Northrup Grumman E-2C Hawkeye Airborne Early Warning carrier aircraft and set a course for them to intercept the AAV about a mile away from it.
Naval observers reported the object looked like “an elongated egg or a ‘Tic Tac’ shape with a discernable midline horizontal axis.” It appeared “solid white, smooth, with no edges” and “uniformly colored with no nacelles, pylons or wings” and was about 46 feet long.
The interceptor jets’ radar failed to get a “lock” on the AAV but it could be tracked with the Forward Looking Infrared (FLIR) when it traveled at slower speeds or hovered.
The AAV took evasive actions when it was approached by the Navy’s jets but never took any offensive action against the CSG. However, “given its ability to operate unchallenged in close vicinity to the CSG it demonstrated the potential to conduct undetected reconnaissance leaving the CSG with a limited ability to detect, track, and/or engage the AAV.”
Navy pilot Commander David Fravor (now retired) and Lieutenant Commander Jim Slaight were flying in separates aircraft on a routine training mission 100 miles off the Pacific Coast near San Diego, California when an operations officer aboard the USS Princeton radioed an intriguing question: did either aircraft have live weapons aboard?
Cmdr. Fravor answered in the negative: the two planes were equipped with two dummy missiles apiece that could not be fired.
It was these two pilots who vectored in on the unknown object. When they got to the location, however, they saw nothing. Their radars showed nothing, as well.
Cmdr. Fravor then cast his eyes down toward the ocean. The weather was calm, but waves were breaking over something he could see just below the water’s surface. He then spotted the AAV about 50 feet above the water. It darted erratically, but moved in no particular direction, while remaining over the churning waves below it.
Fravor said the ocean looked as if it were boiling underneath the AAV. As the Commander descended in a slow circle to get a closer view, the object began to move toward him, as if to meet him halfway. At that point, Fravor steered directly toward the bogey.
“It accelerated like nothing I’ve ever seen,” Fravor revealed in an interview and he was “pretty weirded out.”
By the time Cmdr. Fravor landed on the Nimitz, the rest of the crew was talking about the sighting – and made fun of the trained observer.
Fravor’s superior officers performed no further investigation and the CSG went on about its business. Fravor himself was deployed to the Persian Gulf theater to provide air support for ground troops during the war with Iraq.
“I have no idea what I saw. It had no plumes, wings or rotors and outran our F-18s,” Fravor told another pilot who had asked what the object was. Then he added, “But I want to fly one.”
George Knapp, an award-winning reporter at KLAS-TV in Las Vegas, has decades of experience in investigating UFO sightings. He said that no fewer than seven F-18 pilots and radar operators in the CSG confirmed what Cmdr. Fravor had seen.
Knapp also authenticated the Navy report as genuine despite its lack of identifying information:
“The analysis report is not dated and has no logo, but four separate people who are familiar with its contents confirmed…it is the real deal and was written as part of a Pentagon program.”
The really strange part of this story is that the U.S. Navy – at least, according to them – never followed up on the credible UFO sighting, believing it was no threat to national security.
What in the world is really going on here?
I’m going to let all of you in on a little secrete. You know how some people are when it comes to taking credit due someone else. Most all of you have either witnessed, or at least heard of our successful flight to the moon. The actual Flight Director on that adventure was a good friend of mind and my baseball coach at the Boy’s club in Jackson, Ms. before attending college and majoring in physics. His Name was Clifford E Charlesworth, look him up on the Internet, he was the chief flight director on that successful flight to the moon. Clifford passed away several years, and wouldn’t you know, another flight attendant, without mentioning his name, clamed credit.