David Fravor: the US Navy pilot who intercepted the “Tic-Tac”

The essentials in 30 seconds

David Fravor is a former US Navy commander, leader of the VFA-41 “Black Aces” fighter squadron. The November 14, 2004, off the coast of California, during training of the carrier strike group of the aircraft carrier USS Nimitz, he intercepted in flight an oblong white object - the "Tic-Tac" - approximately 12 meters long, without wings, without rotor, without visible exhaust, which maneuvered then disappeared at a speed that he considered inexplicable. His testimony, corroborated by his co-pilot Alex Dietrich and linked to the FLIR1 video authenticated by the Pentagon, became the most cited UAP case in the world. The July 26, 2023, he repeated this story under oath before the US Congress.

Who is David Fravor?

A qualified US Navy fighter pilot, David Fravor served eighteen years, including several years as commander of Strike Fighter Squadron 41 (VFA-41), on the F/A-18F Super Hornet. At the time of the incident, he had over sixteen years of military flying experience and led the squadron embarked on the USS Nimitz. This profile – squadron commander, instructor, TOPGUN school pilot – is precisely what gives his testimony its weight: he is not an anonymous observer, he is a professional trained to identify everything that flies.

November 14, 2004: What Fravor describes

That day, the cruiser USS Princeton, equipped with the SPY-1 radar, had been tracking abnormal objects descending from very high altitudes for several days. Two F/A-18Fs are diverted towards the contact. Fravor describes a rough, "cross-shaped" sea below the surface, and above it, a smooth, oblong white object — the shape of a Tic-Tac candy — moving erratically at low altitude. When it spirals down to intercept it, the object rises towards it, then disappears of his visual field in one second. The Princeton reacquired it a few moments later… about a hundred kilometers away. His co-pilot, Lieutenant Alex Dietrich, who flew in the second aircraft with his own weapons officer, has publicly confirmed the observation since 2021.

A second flight, launched after its own, records the infrared sequence FLIR1 — one of three videos officially declassified by the Pentagon in April 2020. Our complete file on the Nimitz incident and the Tic-Tac video →

Sworn testimony to Congress (July 26, 2023)

On July 26, 2023, David Fravor testified under oath before the House of Representatives Subcommittee on National Security, alongside Ryan Graves and David Grusch. He repeats his story from 2004 and declares that the technology observed exceeded anything available to the United States. A sworn testimony is not material evidence: it is a declaration criminally binding on its author, which gives it a particular documentary status. The written report of the hearing is public.

What the Fravor case proves — and doesn't prove

The case rests on four rare pillars: an elite witness, corroboration by a second crew, a sensor trace (FLIR1, authenticated), and radar tracking (Princeton, reported by the operators). No official report has explained the incident: the AARO classifies it as an unresolved case. But no reports have concluded a non-human origin either. Conventional hypotheses (secret drone, radar artifact, illusion) each have their defenders and their flaws. Twenty-two years later, Fravor's question remains: what did he intercept that day?