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=== Infrared footage ===
=== Infrared footage ===
[[File:Gimbal The First Official UAP Footage from the USG for Public Release.webm|thumb|GIMBAL Video - Unidentified Aerial Phenomena]]
[[File:AN ASQ-228 ATFLIR mounted on US Navy FA-18E Super Hornet (NF300, 166859) of VFA-115 CAG bird static display at NCAS Iwakuni Base May 5, 2016 01.jpg|alt=|thumb|A [[Raytheon]] [[AN/ASQ-228 ATFLIR|ATFLIR]] Targeting Pod mounted on an [[Boeing F/A-18E/F Super Hornet]]]]
[[File:AN ASQ-228 ATFLIR mounted on US Navy FA-18E Super Hornet (NF300, 166859) of VFA-115 CAG bird static display at NCAS Iwakuni Base May 5, 2016 01.jpg|alt=|thumb|A [[Raytheon]] [[AN/ASQ-228 ATFLIR|ATFLIR]] Targeting Pod mounted on an [[Boeing F/A-18E/F Super Hornet]]]]
After the return of the first team to ''Nimitz'', a second crew took off at approximately 12:00 PST, this time equipped with an advanced infrared camera ([[Forward-looking infrared|FLIR pod]]). This camera recorded what appeared to be a moving object. The footage was publicly released by [[the Pentagon]] more than 13 years later, on 16 December 2017, alongside the revelation of the funding of the [[Advanced Aerospace Threat Identification Program]].<ref name="NYT-20171216-B">{{cite news|url=https://www.nytimes.com/2017/12/16/us/politics/pentagon-program-ufo-harry-reid.html|title=Glowing Auras and 'Black Money': The Pentagon's Mysterious U.F.O. Program|last1=Cooper|first1=Helene|last2= Blumenthal|first2=Ralph|last3=Kean|first3=Leslie|work=The New York Times|date=December 16, 2017 |access-date=December 17, 2017}}</ref><ref name="WP-20171216">{{Cite news |last=Warrick|first=Joby |authorlink=Joby Warrick|url= https://www.washingtonpost.com/world/national-security/head-of-pentagons-secret-ufo-office-sought-to-make-evidence-public/2017/12/16/90bcb7cc-e2b2-11e7-8679-a9728984779c_story.html |title=Head of Pentagon's secret 'UFO' office sought to make evidence public |date=December 16, 2017 |work=[[The Washington Post]] |access-date=December 21, 2017}}</ref><ref name="Politico-20171216" />
After the return of the first team to ''Nimitz'', a second crew took off at approximately 12:00 PST, this time equipped with an advanced infrared camera ([[Forward-looking infrared|FLIR pod]]). This camera recorded what appeared to be a moving object. The footage was publicly released by [[the Pentagon]] more than 13 years later, on 16 December 2017, alongside the revelation of the funding of the [[Advanced Aerospace Threat Identification Program]].<ref name="NYT-20171216-B">{{cite news|url=https://www.nytimes.com/2017/12/16/us/politics/pentagon-program-ufo-harry-reid.html|title=Glowing Auras and 'Black Money': The Pentagon's Mysterious U.F.O. Program|last1=Cooper|first1=Helene|last2= Blumenthal|first2=Ralph|last3=Kean|first3=Leslie|work=The New York Times|date=December 16, 2017 |access-date=December 17, 2017}}</ref><ref name="WP-20171216">{{Cite news |last=Warrick|first=Joby |authorlink=Joby Warrick|url= https://www.washingtonpost.com/world/national-security/head-of-pentagons-secret-ufo-office-sought-to-make-evidence-public/2017/12/16/90bcb7cc-e2b2-11e7-8679-a9728984779c_story.html |title=Head of Pentagon's secret 'UFO' office sought to make evidence public |date=December 16, 2017 |work=[[The Washington Post]] |access-date=December 21, 2017}}</ref><ref name="Politico-20171216" />

Revision as of 16:35, 18 May 2020

USS Nimitz UFO incident
Associated video released by the United States Department of Defense on April 27, 2020.
DateNovember 10–16, 2004 (2004-11-10 – 2004-11-16)
LocationPacific Ocean, off the coast of southern California

The USS Nimitz UFO incident was a radar-visual encounter of an unidentified flying object by US fighter pilots of the Nimitz Carrier Strike Group in 2004. Two F/A-18 Super Hornets pilots led by the commander of Strike Fighter Squadron 41 communicated that they saw a flying object. Radar signals were seen by United States Navy ships and aircraft in the area as well.[1] An infrared video recording taken from an F/A-18 that part of the incident has also been released.[2]

The primary encounter occurred during a combat training exercise being conducted in the Pacific Ocean off the coast of southern California on 14 November 2004, with related sightings supposedly occurring in the days before and after this encounter. A 2015 account of the incident on FighterSweep.com,[3] interviews with one of the pilots and subsequent news reports describe the sighting of an "unidentified flying object" by four Navy Super Hornet fighter jet pilots.[4]In December 2017 infrared footage of this and another incident in 2014 involving the USS Theodore Roosevelt was published by The New York Times and a company named To the Stars.[5][6] In 2018 Skeptical Inquirer questioned the accuracy of the pilots' accounts stating that the sightings are more likely explained by equipment malfunction or human error.[7]

In April 2020 the footage was declassified and officially released by the Department of Defense.[8] According to The Washington Post, the videos were initially released by former intelligence officer Luis Elizondo to shed light on a secretive Department of Defense operation to analyze reported UFO sightings, the Advanced Aerospace Threat Identification Program.[9][10][11]

As of April 2020 the aerial phenomena observed in the videos is characterised as "unidentified" by the Department of Defense.[12] Although the Navy has given no explanation or identification for the incidents, skeptics, and some experts and commentators, say the sightings likely have mundane explanations such as equipment malfunction or human error.[13][14][better source needed]

Encounter

USS Princeton (CG-59) with AN/SPY-1 radar antenna visible with its distinctive white octagon shape

Prior to the incident, in early November 2004, the Template:Sclass- guided missile cruiser USS Princeton, part of Carrier Strike Group 11, started recording intermittent radar tracks on an advanced AN/SPY-1B passive scanning phased array radar.[5][4] Thinking the brand new radar was malfunctioning, the Princeton sailors restarted and recalibrated the system but the tracks became sharper and clearer.[15] On or around 10 November, Navy Chief Petty Officer (E-7) Kevin Day, stationed on Princeton, noticed groups of five to 10 radar traces that were travelling southwards in a loose though fixed formation at 28,000 feet (8,500 m) in the immediate vicinity of Catalina and San Clemente islands.[15] He was startled by their slow speed of 100 knots (190 km/h; 120 mph) at such an altitude,[15] but received confirmation of their presence from radar operators on other vessels.[citation needed] The returns continued showing up continuously for almost a week, with sailors observing something moving erratically in the distance through the ship's magnified binoculars.[15]

Visual sighting

USS Nimitz ahead of the USS Princeton

When a similar event occurred again around 9:30 PST on 14 November 2004, an operations officer aboard Princeton contacted a U.S. Marine Corps F/A-18 Hornet and two U.S. Navy Boeing F/A-18E/F Super Hornets from USS Nimitz, flying in the area at the time. The Marine Hornet was piloted by the commanding officer of squadron VMFA-232, Lieutenant Colonel Kurth, that was completing a post-maintenance check. The Navy aircraft were two-seat variants, and each pilot was accompanied by a weapon systems officer (WSO). The lead Super Hornet was piloted by Commander David Fravor, commanding officer of Strike Fighter Squadron 41. The second fighter was wingman Lieutenant Commander Jim Slaight.[5]

Princeton's radio operator directly instructed the pilots to change their course and investigate the unidentified radar spot observed by Princeton's own radar.[4] An E-2C Hawkeye airborne early warning (AEW) aircraft in flight at the time was contacted to conduct the intercept but the signals could only be detected after Princeton sent them coordinates and were too faint to obtain a precise target track.[16][15] A radio operator on Princeton asked the pilots if they were carrying operational weapons, to which the pilots replied that they were not.[4] The weather conditions for that day showed excellent visibility with a blue sky, no cloud cover, and a calm sea.

As the aircraft approached the intercept location Princeton instructed Lieutenant Colonel Kurth to leave the area as the Navy planes were approaching. The pilot noticed a round section of turbulent water about 50-100 meters in diameter before returning to Nimitz without seeing any source for the disturbance and without picking up any unknown radar contact.[16] The Navy pilots reached the intercept location without any contact on their new APG-73 radars.[16] They looked down at the sea and also noticed a turbulent oval area of churning water with foam and frothy waves "the size of a Boeing 737 airplane"[17] with a smoother area of lighter color at the center, as if the waves were breaking over something just under the surface.[17] A few seconds later, they noticed an unusual object hovering with erratic movements at a height they estimated to be about 50 feet (15 m) above the churning water. Both Fravor[18] and Slaight later described the object as a large bright white Tic Tac, 30 to 46 feet (9.1 to 14.0 m) long, with no windshield nor porthole, no wing nor empennage, and no visible engine nor exhaust plume.[19][18][20][21]

Fravor began a circular descent to approach the object.[17] As Fravor further descended, he reported that the object began ascending along a curved path, maintaining some distance from the F-18, mirroring its trajectory in opposite circles.[17][18] Fravor then made a more aggressive maneuver, plunging his fighter to aim below the object, but at this point the UFO apparently accelerated and disappeared in less than two seconds, leaving the pilots "pretty weirded out".[17][21]

Subsequently, the two fighter jets began a new course to the combat air patrol (CAP) rendezvous point. "Within seconds" Princeton radioed the jets that a radar target had appeared 60 miles (97 km) away at the predetermined rendezvous point. According to Popular Mechanics, a physical object would have had to move greater than 2,400 miles per hour (3,900 km/h) to reach the CAP ahead of the Navy fighters. Their jets have a maximum speed of Mach 1.8 (1,190 miles per hour (1,920 km/h)). To actually get there "within seconds" would have required an air speed of at least 42,000 miles per hour (68,000 km/h). Two other jets went to investigate the new radar location, but "By the time the Super Hornets arrived [...] the object had already disappeared." Both F-18s then returned to Nimitz.[4] Commander Fravor reflected on his sighting: "I have no idea what I saw. It had no plumes, wings or rotors and outran our F-18s. But I want to fly one."[5] In a 2017 interview with the Washington Post he stated "It was a real object, it exists and I saw it" and when asked what he believes it was he speculated it was "Something not from the Earth."[22] In may 2019, Fravor was a featured speaker at the "UFOfest" in McMinnville, Oregon. Fravor and UFO conspiracy theorist Bob Lazar reportedly "spent a lot of time comparing notes", and Fravor has speculated the UFO used "gravity propulsion" claimed by Lazar to be part of a US government coverup of alien technology.[23]

[24]

Infrared footage

GIMBAL Video - Unidentified Aerial Phenomena
A Raytheon ATFLIR Targeting Pod mounted on an Boeing F/A-18E/F Super Hornet

After the return of the first team to Nimitz, a second crew took off at approximately 12:00 PST, this time equipped with an advanced infrared camera (FLIR pod). This camera recorded what appeared to be a moving object. The footage was publicly released by the Pentagon more than 13 years later, on 16 December 2017, alongside the revelation of the funding of the Advanced Aerospace Threat Identification Program.[6][10][9]

This footage is known as the 2004 USS Nimitz FLIR1 video. Aside from a 2015 secondhand story on FighterSweep.com, the 2017 release was the first time the story was made public.[4] A second film of infrared footage, known as the GIMBAL video, was released by the Pentagon alongside the 2004 FLIR1 footage. Although the media often present the two videos together to illustrate the 2004 USS Nimitz UFO incident, the GIMBAL video is unrelated, and was filmed on the East Coast of the United States during the USS Theodore Roosevelt UFO incidents.[17][25] In May 2019, journalists from Las Vegas station KLAS 10 determined that the videos were indeed released by the Pentagon, and not by any private individuals or organizations.[26] In April 2020, this footage and footage of the Theodore Roosevelt incidents was declassified and officially released by the Department of Defense, and is available for public viewing at the Naval Air Systems Command FOIA Reading Room.[27]

Aftermath

According to multiple Princeton and Nimitz sailors, once the incident was over, unknown personnel and officers landed on the ships, collected the data logs from the incidents and wiped the ship systems.[28][29][30] The witnesses state that all data logs of the incident were erased from the ships including the recorders for the ship’s advanced Cooperative Engagement Capability (CEC) system and the optical drives with all the radio communications.[28][29]

Petty Officer Gary Voorhis, who was responsible for the Princeton's CEC system, recalls that within 12 hours of the incident a helicopter carrying uniformed personnel landed on the ship and he was ordered to turn over all logs regarding the incident and to wipe the system.[28][29] The persons making the request did not provide their credentials, so he complied with their request only after confirming the order with the ship's captain.[28][29] According to Voorhis: "The tapes contained crucial data that would easily shed light on the mysterious Tic Tac-shaped object. [...] You could literally plot the entire course of the object, you could extract the densities, the speeds, the way it moved, the way it displaced the air, its radar cross-section, how much of the radar itself was reflected off its surface. I mean you could pretty much recreate the entire event with the CEC data."[29] Aboard Nimitz, Petty Officer Patrick “PJ” Hughes was storing the E-2 Hawkeye data recorders in classified safes. He recalls that his commanding officer and two unknown officers wearing United States Air Force uniforms, whom he had not seen before, asked him to hand over all the recorders taken from the flight as he was storing them in safes.[28][30]

Commander David Fravor, has acknowledged the disappearance of data records but has also contradicted the reports that “men in suits” showed up on the ships.[31] He says that none of the pilots involved were even interviewed at the time and that given his rank he would have known if any kind of formal investigation had been conducted.[31] In 2015, however, he had reported that a government agency had subsequently conducted an investigation into the event and had exhaustively interviewed all parties involved.[32]

In September 2019, the Navy confirmed the authenticity of the videos, stating only that they depict what they consider to be "unidentified aerial phenomena".[33][34][35] Susan Gough, a Pentagon spokeswoman, confirmed that the three videos were made by naval aviators and that they are "part of a larger issue of an increased number of training range incursions by unidentified aerial phenomena in recent years."[36]

After the incidents became public, classified congressional hearings were conducted with the goal of understanding and identifying the potential threat to the safety and security of aviators.[37][38][39] The Navy has confirmed that, in response to inquiries by members Congress, they have provided a series of briefings by senior naval intelligence officials as well as testimony from "aviators who reported hazards to aviation safety".[40] The contents of those briefings are classified, but Senator Mark Warner, the vice chairman of the Senate Intelligence Committee, who participated to one of those briefings released a statement requesting further research into "unexplained interference in the air" that could pose safety concerns for naval pilots.[37] According to Popular Mechanics, "insiders also say" Brigadier General Richard Stapp, Director of the DoD Special Access Program Central Office, testified to the Senate Intelligence Committee that "mysterious objects being encountered by the military were not related to secret U.S. technology".[39] President Donald Trump has also been briefed on the issue and has stated "I did have one very brief meeting on it. But people are saying they're seeing UFOs. Do I believe it? Not particularly."[41][42]

Following the hearings, the Navy announced it had updated the way pilots were to formally report UFO incidents, in order to encourage pilots to flag disturbances which "have been occurring regularly since 2014."[43] According to Joseph Gradisher, spokesman for the deputy Chief of Naval Operations, the new guidance was an update of instructions that went out to the fleet in 2015, after the USS Theodore Roosevelt UFO incidents and stated that: "we don’t know who’s doing this, we don’t have enough data to track this. The intent of the message to the fleet is to provide updated guidance on reporting procedures for suspected intrusions into our airspace."[44] Regarding the new guidelines, he said that one possible explanation for the increase in reported intrusions could be the rise in availability of unmanned aerial systems such as quadrocopters.[45] The footage was publicly released in April 2020 by the Department of Defense.[46]

Analysis and possible explanations

An unclassified and redacted summary of the event released by the US military

George Knapp published for KLAS-TV copies of unclassified documents related to the encounters with analysis by the U.S. Government compiled in 2009 with input from multiple agencies.[47][2] The key assessments in the report state that the AAV "was no known aircraft or air vehicle currently in the inventory of the United States or any foreign nation" and that it displayed "advanced low observable characteristics" that rendered "U.S. radar based engagement capabilities ineffective." The AAV also displayed "advanced aerodynamic performance" and greater velocities "than any known aerial vehicle" with no detectable means of producing lift or visible control surfaces. The vehicle was also capable of operating underwater undetected by the Navy's most advanced sensors.

Defense and security writer Kyle Mizokami suggested three possibilities that could explain the sightings. The first is simultaneous equipment malfunction or misinterpretation; USS Princeton's radars and the Super Hornets' electro-optical sensors and radars could have malfunctioned, or the crew could have misinterpreted a number of natural phenomena. The second is classified government technology. Mizokami's third possibility was that the sightings were caused by objects of extraterrestrial origin.[4][10] The New York Times included a disclaimer in its reporting of the incident: "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".[5]

Physicist Don Lincoln suggested that it was "very unlikely that what these pilots are reporting turns out to be an unfriendly superweapon or an alien craft," however he explained that he would like to see the reports investigated "under the premise that the best science is done when as many opinions are considered as possible, preferably in the open and subject to peer review." According to Lincoln, "unidentified doesn't mean flying saucer or a Russian superweapon. It merely means unidentified."[48][49]

Science journalist Dennis Overbye argued a "stubborn residue" of unexplained aerial phenomena remain after review. Overbye highlighted that some of these accounts are obtained from respected observers such as military pilots. However, he cautioned, "as modern psychology and neuroscience have established, the senses are an unreliable portal to reality, whatever that is."[50]

Raytheon has confirmed those videos have been captured by one of their ATFLIR targeting pods mounted on the fighter jets. They stated that "video images are not definitive proof that the jet pilots were chasing an actual UFO." Steve Cummings, vice president of Technology Development and Execution, stated that "To really be sure, we would need the raw data", "visual displays alone are not the best evidence" and that one way to exclude any anomaly would be to observe "the same target, behaving the same way on multiple sensors." Aaron Maestas, director of engineering and chief engineer for Surveillance and Targeting Systems at Raytheon stated: "We might be the system that caught the first evidence of E.T. out there."

The Washington Post identified David Fravor as "the commanding officer of the VFA-41 Black Aces," at the time of the 2004 incident.[22] The Blade of Toledo, Ohio stated Fravor retired from military service in 2006, after a 24-year career, including 18 years as a Navy pilot and deployments in Iraq that began during Operation Desert Storm. Fravor stated the identities of other Naval officers aboard the two fighter jets during his mission on 14 November 2004 had not been released publicly as they were still active in the military at the time of The Blade publication in 2018.[51]

Joe Nickell writing for the Skeptical Inquirer reports that there are differing versions of Fravor's account, including a "truly curious document that tells Fravor's story in the form of a military-style briefing" designed to create a "pseudo top-secret appearance". Nickell identified the document as "a third-person account of an interview with Fravor, produced by a fringe-ideas group called To the Stars Academy of Arts and Science". Regarding the visual sightings reported by Fravor, Nickell questioned how he could see "what a forty-foot object was doing from forty miles away" and characterized the "confusion and incompleteness in the reports" of the training mission as a "comedy of errors".[52] Nickell and astronomer and former Air Force pilot James E. McGaha said that reports of churning water could have been caused by a submerging submarine, the visual sightings could have been of a reconnaissance drone, and that "one video image showing an object suddenly zooming off screen was likely caused by the plane's banking while the camera was stopped at the end of its sweep".[52] He comments that several reports of the incident mention that when Fravor returned to the USS Nimitz following the encounter, most of the personnel on the carrier did not take the encounter seriously, reportedly making fun of Fravor and playing alien movies on the ship's onboard closed-circuit TV system, implying that perhaps they knew something Fravor did not. Nickell also stated that the incident had apparently not been considered serious enough to warrant a debriefing of either Fravor, the other pilots, or the radar operator.[52]

In popular culture

Television

See also

References

  1. ^ Fravor, David (June 28, 2018). "Ret Navy Com David Fravor". Phenomenon Radio (Interview). Interviewed by Linda Moulton Howe. KGRA. Retrieved December 20, 2018 – via Spreaker.
  2. ^ a b Phelan, Matthew (December 19, 2019). "Navy Pilot Who Filmed the 'Tic Tac' UFO Speaks: 'It Wasn't Behaving by the Normal Laws of Physics'". New York Magazine. Retrieved December 21, 2019.{{cite news}}: CS1 maint: url-status (link)
  3. ^ "There I Was: The X-Files Edition". SOFREP. Retrieved February 14, 2020.
  4. ^ a b c d e f g Mizokami, Kyle (December 18, 2017). "That Time the U.S. Navy Had a Close Encounter With a UFO". Popular Mechanics. Retrieved December 21, 2017.
  5. ^ a b c d e Cooper, Helene; Kean, Leslie; Blumenthal, Ralph (December 16, 2017). "2 Navy Airmen and an Object That 'Accelerated Like Nothing I've Ever Seen'". The New York Times. Retrieved December 21, 2017.
  6. ^ a b Cooper, Helene; Blumenthal, Ralph; Kean, Leslie (December 16, 2017). "Glowing Auras and 'Black Money': The Pentagon's Mysterious U.F.O. Program". The New York Times. Retrieved December 17, 2017.
  7. ^ Kreidler, Marc (May 1, 2018). "Navy Pilot's 2004 UFO: A Comedy of Errors | Skeptical Inquirer". Retrieved February 15, 2020.
  8. ^ "Statement by the Department of Defense on the Release of Historical Na". U.S. DEPARTMENT OF DEFENSE. Retrieved April 28, 2020.
  9. ^ a b Bender, Bryan (December 16, 2017). "The Pentagon's Secret Search for UFOs". Politico. Retrieved December 17, 2017.
  10. ^ a b c Warrick, Joby (December 16, 2017). "Head of Pentagon's secret 'UFO' office sought to make evidence public". The Washington Post. Retrieved December 21, 2017.
  11. ^ Mellon, Christopher (March 9, 2018). "The military keeps encountering UFOs. Why doesn't the Pentagon care?". The Washington Post. Retrieved March 12, 2018.
  12. ^ "Statement by the Department of Defense on the Release of Historical Na". U.S. DEPARTMENT OF DEFENSE. Retrieved May 1, 2020.
  13. ^ April 2020, Mindy Weisberger 28. "'UFO' videos declassified by US Navy". Space.com. Retrieved May 4, 2020.{{cite web}}: CS1 maint: numeric names: authors list (link)
  14. ^ Kreidler, Marc (May 1, 2018). "Navy Pilot's 2004 UFO: A Comedy of Errors | Skeptical Inquirer". Retrieved February 15, 2020.
  15. ^ a b c d e McMillan, Tim (November 12, 2019). "The Witnesses". Popular Mechanics. Retrieved November 15, 2019.
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  23. ^ Knapp, George. "I-Team: UFO Fest means close encounters of a different kind". 8newsnow.com. KLAS-TV Las Vegas. Retrieved May 4, 2020.
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  25. ^ Cooper, Helene; Blumenthal, Ralph; Kean, Leslie (May 26, 2019). "'Wow, What Is That?' Navy Pilots Report Unexplained Flying Objects". The New York Times. ISSN 0362-4331. Retrieved February 24, 2020.
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  27. ^ "Statement by the Department of Defense on the Release of Historical Navy Videos", Department of Defense. Retrieved April 27, 2020.
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  36. ^ Taylor, Derrick Bryson (September 26, 2019). "How Blink-182's Tom DeLonge Became a U.F.O. Researcher". The New York Times. ISSN 0362-4331. Retrieved March 27, 2020.
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  39. ^ a b McMillan, Tim (February 14, 2020). "Inside the Pentagon's Secret UFO Program". Popular Mechanics. Retrieved February 25, 2020.
  40. ^ Bender, Bryan. "U.S. Navy drafting new guidelines for reporting UFOs". POLITICO. Retrieved March 26, 2020.
  41. ^ Choi, Matthew (June 15, 2019). "Trump says he was briefed on Navy sightings of UFOs". POLITICO. Retrieved March 26, 2020.{{cite web}}: CS1 maint: url-status (link)
  42. ^ America, Good Morning, Trump says he doesn't particularly believe in UFOs, retrieved March 26, 2020
  43. ^ Epstein, Kayla (September 19, 2019). "Those UFO videos are real, the Navy says, but please stop saying 'UFO'". Washington Post. Retrieved February 25, 2020.{{cite web}}: CS1 maint: url-status (link)
  44. ^ Cooper, Helene; Blumenthal, Ralph; Kean, Leslie (May 26, 2019). "'Wow, What Is That?' Navy Pilots Report Unexplained Flying Objects". The New York Times. ISSN 0362-4331. Retrieved February 24, 2020.
  45. ^ Epstein, Kayla (September 18, 2019). "Those UFO videos are real, the Navy says, but please stop saying 'UFO". The Washington Post. The Washington Post. Retrieved March 25, 2020.
  46. ^ Cite error: The named reference :23 was invoked but never defined (see the help page).
  47. ^ "I-Team Exclusive: Confidential report analyzes Tic Tac UFO incidents". KLAS - 8 News Now. May 19, 2018. Retrieved April 5, 2020.
  48. ^ Lincoln, Don (December 20, 2017). "Keep looking for UFOs". CNN. Retrieved December 22, 2017.
  49. ^ "The Modern Search for U.F.O.s". The Takeaway. WNYC. December 22, 2017. Retrieved December 22, 2017.
  50. ^ Overbye, Dennis (December 29, 2017). "U.F.O.s: Is This All There Is?". The New York Times. Retrieved December 31, 2017.
  51. ^ Henry, Tom (April 1, 2018). "Close encounters of the Toledo kind: Fravor pursued UFO in 2004". The Blade. Retrieved June 16, 2018.
  52. ^ a b c Nickell, Joe (May–June 2018). "Navy Pilot's 2004 UFO: A Comedy of Errors". Skeptical Inquirer. Vol. 42, no. 3. Retrieved June 1, 2018.
  53. ^ Daugherty, Greg (May 16, 2019). "When Top Gun Pilots Tangled with a Baffling Tic-Tac-Shaped UFO". History Channel. Retrieved June 1, 2019.
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