he following recounts an incident in 2004 that advocates of 
research into U.F.O.s have said is the kind of event worthy of 
more investigation, and that was studied by a Pentagon program 
that investigated U.F.O.s. Experts caution that earthly 
explanations often exist for such incidents, and that not 
knowing the explanation does not mean that the event has 
interstellar origins.

Cmdr. David Fravor and Lt. Cmdr. Jim Slaight were on a routine 
training mission 100 miles out into the Pacific when the radio 
in each of their F/A-18F Super Hornets crackled: An operations 
officer aboard the U.S.S. Princeton, a Navy cruiser, wanted to 
know if they were carrying weapons.

�Two CATM-9s,� Commander Fravor replied, referring to dummy 
missiles that could not be fired. He had not been expecting any 
hostile exchanges off the coast of San Diego that November 
afternoon in 2004.

Commander Fravor, in a recent interview with The New York Times, 
recalled what happened next. Some of it is captured in a video 
made public by officials with a Pentagon program that 
investigated U.F.O.s.

�Well, we�ve got a real-world vector for you,� the radio 
operator said, according to Commander Fravor. For two weeks, the 
operator said, the Princeton had been tracking mysterious 
aircraft. The objects appeared suddenly at 80,000 feet, and then 
hurtled toward the sea, eventually stopping at 20,000 feet and 
hovering. Then they either dropped out of radar range or shot 
straight back up.

The radio operator instructed Commander Fravor and Commander 
Slaight, who has given a similar account, to investigate.

The two fighter planes headed toward the objects. The Princeton 
alerted them as they closed in, but when they arrived at �merge 
plot� with the object � naval aviation parlance for being so 
close that the Princeton could not tell which were the objects 
and which were the fighter jets � neither Commander Fravor nor 
Commander Slaight could see anything at first. There was nothing 
on their radars, either.

Then, Commander Fravor looked down to the sea. It was calm that 
day, but the waves were breaking over something that was just 
below the surface. Whatever it was, it was big enough to cause 
the sea to churn.

Hovering 50 feet above the churn was an aircraft of some kind � 
whitish � that was around 40 feet long and oval in shape. The 
craft was jumping around erratically, staying over the wave 
disturbance but not moving in any specific direction, Commander 
Fravor said. The disturbance looked like frothy waves and foam, 
as if the water were boiling.

Commander Fravor began a circular descent to get a closer look, 
but as he got nearer the object began ascending toward him. It 
was almost as if it were coming to meet him halfway, he said.

Commander Fravor abandoned his slow circular descent and headed 
straight for the object.

But then the object peeled away. �It accelerated like nothing 
I�ve ever seen,� he said in the interview. He was, he said, 
�pretty weirded out.�

The two fighter jets then conferred with the operations officer 
on the Princeton and were told to head to a rendezvous point 60 
miles away, called the cap point, in aviation parlance.

They were en route and closing in when the Princeton radioed 
again. Radar had again picked up the strange aircraft.

�Sir, you won�t believe it,� the radio operator said, �but that 
thing is at your cap point.�

�We were at least 40 miles away, and in less than a minute this 
thing was already at our cap point,� Commander Fravor, who has 
since retired from the Navy, said in the interview.

By the time the two fighter jets arrived at the rendezvous 
point, the object had disappeared.

The fighter jets returned to the Nimitz, where everyone on the 
ship had learned of Commander Fravor�s encounter and was making 
fun of him.

Commander Fravor�s superiors did not investigate further and he 
went on with his career, deploying to the Persian Gulf to 
provide air support to ground troops during the Iraq war. But he 
does remember what he said that evening to a fellow pilot who 
asked him what he thought he had seen.

�I have no idea what I saw,� Commander Fravor replied to the 
pilot. �It had no plumes, wings or rotors and outran our F-18s.�

But, he added, �I want to fly one.�

https://www.nytimes.com/2017/12/16/us/politics/unidentified-
flying-object-navy.html?src=trending