File 28526 · November 14, 2004
Nimitz FLIR / Tic Tac
Off the coast of San Diego, United States · Region, not street
Opened 9/10/2026
Ledger illustration of the file — not a photograph of the object. Ledger illustration of the report. — Night Ledger illustration of the file
Standing
Unidentified
On the public record, and still open. A claim, paper, or film — not a finding that it was ours, and not a finding that it was not.
Official GoFast video
U.S. Department of Defense / AARO
Original tape · original language kept
English writing · original voice kept
English writing of the original tape. Nimitz FLIR / Tic Tac — U.S. Department of Defense / AARO. The voice on the recording is left as it was spoken.
Official DoD release of ATFLIR sensor data from Navy F/A-18, part of the 2020 declassification of three UAP videos.
What was claimed
U.S. Navy F/A-18 Super Hornet ATFLIR sensor footage of an unidentified oblong object during training exercises with the USS Nimitz carrier strike group. The object was reported by multiple pilots and radar systems prior to the infrared recording.
What is on the record
This file is a working record — a report, not a verdict. Official paper, if any, is linked where we have it.
On November 14, 2004, while conducting training operations approximately 100 miles off the coast of San Diego, the USS Princeton detected anomalous radar contacts descending from high altitude to the ocean surface. Pilots from the USS Nimitz, including Cmdr. David Fravor, visually observed a white, oblong object approximately 40 feet in length with no wings or rotors hovering above a disturbance in the water. A subsequent flight with an ATFLIR pod locked onto and recorded the object on infrared. The footage shows a distinct thermal signature maintaining level flight before accelerating rapidly out of frame. The Navy later confirmed the video's authenticity as part of official UAP investigations. The object remains unidentified.
Could this have been ours?
The known sky, that night.
The station was flying. Starlink was not. A string of orbs in this year is usually not a train.
1998 —
International Space Station
A bright, steady moving star. A few minutes to cross. No strobe. Occupied since 2000. NASA publishes the pass times. Not unidentified.
Always
Aircraft, balloons, meteors
Landing lights, flares, lanterns, reentries, fireballs. They are on the known sky. They do not close a file by themselves — they are what a serious look has to hold the claim against.
Orbit · Space — the desks for lights that are already named.
Sources
Related files
Same craft, same place, same years. A neighbor in the catalogue — not a conclusion.
