A secret Pentagon program studied UFOs until at least 2012. Here's one encounter they couldn't explain.


"There are more things in heaven and Earth, Horatio, than are dreamt of in your philosophy," Hamlet says in Act I of Shakespeare's famous tragedy. For U.S. Navy Cmdr. David Fravor, the unknown thing from the heavens he saw in 2004 looked like "a white Tic Tac, about the same size as a Hornet [fighter jet], 40 feet long with no wings," he told The Washington Post on Monday, two days after the Pentagon confirmed the existence of a secret program that searched for alien spacecraft and other potentially dangerous aircraft. "It was a real object, it exists, and I saw it," Fravor said, and it was clearly "something not from the Earth."
Fravor told the Post that on Nov. 14, 2004, he was ordered to lead his Navy strike fighter squadron, the A-41 Black Aces, off the California coast to check out some fast-dropping unidentified flying objects officials had been tracking for a few weeks. When they arrived, he saw the oblong object "just hanging close to the water," and "as I get closer, as my nose is starting to pull back up, it accelerates, and it's gone," Fravor told the Post. "Faster than I'd ever seen anything in my life."
A separate squadron of planes arriving as Fravor's crew left shot the following video of the "anomalous aerial vehicle". A private company, To the Stars Academy of Arts and Sciences, annotated the video after one of its consultants, Luis Elizondo, got the Pentagon to declassify and release it and two other cockpit videos before he left the government. Elizondo led the UFO-seeking Advanced Aviation Threat Identification Program (AATIP).
Subscribe to The Week
Escape your echo chamber. Get the facts behind the news, plus analysis from multiple perspectives.

Sign up for The Week's Free Newsletters
From our morning news briefing to a weekly Good News Newsletter, get the best of The Week delivered directly to your inbox.
From our morning news briefing to a weekly Good News Newsletter, get the best of The Week delivered directly to your inbox.
Fravor retired in 2006 and mostly kept quiet about what he saw until 2009, when an unidentified government official approached and put him in touch with Elizondo. The AATIP started in 2007 and officially closed in 2012, though some of its research reportedly continues. You can read more about Fravor's experience at The Washington Post.
A free daily email with the biggest news stories of the day – and the best features from TheWeek.com
Peter has worked as a news and culture writer and editor at The Week since the site's launch in 2008. He covers politics, world affairs, religion and cultural currents. His journalism career began as a copy editor at a financial newswire and has included editorial positions at The New York Times Magazine, Facts on File, and Oregon State University.
-
Magazine solutions - June 27, 2025
Puzzles and Quizzes Issue - June 27, 2025
-
Magazine printables - June 27, 2025
Puzzles and Quizzes Issue - June 27, 2025
-
Army commissions tech execs as officer recruits
IN THE SPOTLIGHT Some of the tech industry's most powerful players are answering the call of Uncle Sam
-
Trump's LA deployment in limbo after court rulings
Speed Read Judge Breyer ruled that Trump's National Guard deployment to Los Angeles was an 'illegal' overreach. But a federal appellate court halted the ruling.
-
Marines, National Guard in LA can detain Americans
speed read The troops have been authorized to detain anyone who interferes with immigration raids
-
Trump vows 'very big force' against parade protesters
Speed Read The parade, which will shut down much of the capital, will celebrate the US Army's 250th anniversary and Trump's 79th birthday
-
Smithsonian asserts its autonomy from Trump
speed read The DC institution defied Trump's firing of National Portrait Gallery Director Kim Sajet
-
Trump sends Marines to LA, backs Newsom arrest
speed read California Gov. Gavin Newsom is filing lawsuits in response to Trump's escalation of the federal response to ICE protests
-
Trump foists National Guard on unwilling California
speed read Protests erupted over ICE immigration raids in LA county
-
Supreme Court lowers bar in discrimination cases
speed read The court ruled in favor of a white woman who claimed she lost two deserved promotions to gay employees
-
Trump-Musk relationship implodes in taunts, threats
speed read Musk said Trump's multitrillion bill would cause a recession and accused the president of involvement with Jeffrey Epstein