[kellyhound]

The 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/u...pgtype=article

[b575ryon]

neat & very interesting.

[spudigitti]

What's the story with this blink 182 dude

[durt]

Santa's new rocket sled!

[Stevieaitch]

They are here and have been for quite a while

[FearsMuse]

[Ninjavandal]

That is rather fascinating. Thank you, again.

[Bletch]

Absolutely fascinating!

[Kanda444]

its always funny to me the big deal people make over fuzzy videos of nothing. we have no clue what that was.....yet the assumptions being made (not here, really, as the comments on here are pretty rational and arent making speculations. good on you guys ) are funny to me.

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.”

....how do you know its something that is piloted and not some sort of odd natural phenomena? the actual tv camera didnt show anything but a black smudge and all we have is IR data....so, that not enough to be conclusive about anything.

in fact, here is what the VP of Tech Development at Raytheon (the company that makes the sensor equipment) said about this incident:

ATFLIR, designated AN/ASQ-228 by the U.S. Navy, is a single pod that combines mid-wave infrared targeting and navigation FLIRs, an electro-optical, or visual light, sensor, a laser rangefinder and target designator, and a laser spot-tracker. It can locate and designate targets day or night at ranges exceeding 40 nautical miles and altitudes surpassing 50,000 feet.

Even so, the video images are not definitive proof that the jet pilots were chasing an actual UFO.

“To really be sure, we would need the raw data,” said Dr. Steve Cummings, vice president of Technology Development and Execution at Raytheon Space and Airborne Systems. “Visual displays alone are not the best evidence.”

So how best to track an alien spaceship in our skies?

“Wide-area search of some form or another," said Cummings. “I would want want at least two sensors, like radar and [electro-optical/infrared], to search the skies...One way to actually verify these and be absolutely certain that this is not an anomaly is to get the same target, behaving the same way on multiple sensors.”

(source)

the pilots claim they saw it with their eyes as well...but, still, that doesnt mean a thing, sadly, as eye witness accounts are usually inaccurate and when you're in a group seeing something you dont understand, assumptions in the moment can turn to false memories later...and with a group, one member tends to corroborate the other member's story, feeding the false memories and making them seem more concrete to those who have them.

interesting video though. it would be awesome to know what it was. i would absolutely love to see some evidence that life somewhere figure out how to traverse the cosmos.

[niknik]

I do not believe in aliens. I'm leaning towards a rational explanation would explain this.

I just don't see how it's possible, nor do I believe government's around the world could keep it quite . After all, if aliens were visiting us I doubt they'd only come to America. Although we are pretty awesome.

Just with all the technology we have now, I think proof would exist, and we would have seen it if it did. I can sorta understand pre 80's that people could buy in, but now the earth and the space around earth is covered in radar and satellite trackers and imagery.