English: USS Nimitz 2004 "Tic Tac" UFO, shown hovering over a sea surface disturbance while approached by an F/A-18 hornet.
VFA-41 commander David Fravor, since retired, was a seasoned fighter pilot at the time, with 16 years of experience. He considers the maneuvers and reactions of the unidentified craft, which he viewed for 5 minutes, as inexplicable despite the extent of his flight experience. He also considers this incident unique insofar as he (and other pilots) physically went after the craft and closed in on it, causing it to react to his (or their) physical approach. Fravor was in other words physically engaging with the craft, and states that he is unaware of any pilot incident where a comparable event has been reported.[1]
Commander Fravor's airplane approached from the west at about 20,000 ft or higher, while the target was deemed to be between 15,000 and 20,000 ft (some sources say 25,000 ft) above sea level. Fravor was unable to find anything in their vectored position until looking down at the sea, where he noticed what appeared to be a submerged object in the water, the size of a ship or passenger plane. It was facing east and was associated with an oval-shaped disturbance on the water surface. On the right hand side of his airplane, just forward of the right wing line was a "little white" object that resembled a "Tic Tac", as it was afterwards known, which was moving about erratically some 50 ft (25 m) above the said surface disturbance. This white object soon began to rise into the air, and moved (clockwise) towards the 9 o'clock of a large circle as Fravor's airplane was moving towards the 3 o'clock. It sustained this relative movement until Fravor arrived at the 8 o'clock position. He estimated the wingless object to be about 47 ft (14 metres) long. As Fravor tried to close the distance, the object initiated an excessive acceleration which saw it disappear in a matter of seconds.[2] It was now noticed that the surface disturbance had disappeared and radar on the Princeton vessel relocated the unidentified craft (or a similar one) 60 miles away at the pilot's CAP (Combat Air Patrol) point.