The Setting
The U.S. Navy Carrier Strike Group 11 lead by it's flagship USS Nimitz was conducting a routine training mission approximately 90 miles off the coast between San Diego, CA and Ensenada, Mexico. During a perfect flight day with calm sea two airborne US Navy F/A-18 Super Hornet were told to suspend their training event for real-world tasking which was to investigate an unknown aerial contact.
The Encounter
One of the two jets was piloted by Commander David "SEX" Fravor, U.S Navy (Ret.) who reports to have seen distrubance in the water as well as a white 40 foot long Tic Tac shaped object, without any visible propulsion systems or wings. The object was hovering above the water but also moving erratically around a certain spot.
Fravor describes that the object began to react to his jet coming closer and that it flew a circle together with the F/A-18. When he decided to cut the circle to get a closer look (up to a half mile) the object rapidly accelerated and disappered in approximately about one second. The scene was also witnessed by the weapon systems officer and by the crew onboard the other jet which was patrolling in higher altitude.
Commander Fravor later said that he and others believe that this thing was not from this world and that the Navy has been already tracking the phenomenon on radar for two weeks prior to that event. But this was the first time that manned airplaine have been airborne when the object appeared.
The Video
Later that day, the same object has been pursued and recorded on video by another F/A-18 Super Hornet that was equipped with a ATFLIR targeting pod. The pilot's name who allegedly flew that jet is Chad "nuts" Underwood, who confirmed this on Twitter and in interviews.
The video showing the object in Infrared and in TV mode has been released to the public named "FLIR1" on December 16, 2017. This was possible due to efforts of Luis Elizondo, who allegedly headed the Advanced Aerospace Threat Identification Program (AATIP) until he resigned in October 2017. Shortly after leaving the Pentagon, Elizondo joined To The Stars Academy of Arts & Science in the role of Director of Global Security and Special Programs. TTSA published videos, reports and interviews on that topic, starting from December 16, 2017. The New York Times and The Washington Post broke the story that day, including the videos. Both newspapers also published interviews with Commander David Fravor at that time.
On April 27, 2020 the Department of Defense has authorized the release of the unclassified Navy video "FLIR" and two other videos which can be found at the Naval Air Systems Command FOIA Reading Room.
Official Confirmation
The authenticity of the video has been later confirmed by Susan Gough, a spokeswoman for the Pentagon, as well as by Joseph Gradisher, spokesperson for the deputy chief of Naval Operations for Information Warfare.
Gradisher told The Black Vault on September 10, 2019 that "the Navy designates the objects contained in these videos as unidentified aerial phenomena". Gough earlier said "the videos were never officially released to the general public by the DoD and should still be withheld".
On April 27, 2020 the Department of Defense has released a statement which confirms that the video is indeed a Navy video and that the aerial phenomena observed in the video remain characterized as "unidentified".
