UAP Case Archive

Shapes / Tic Tacs

Tic Tacs

Smooth, white, oblong and wingless. One week off San Diego in November 2004 defined the shape, and every later report is measured against it. The best evidence is not a video but the Navy's own paperwork.

    Off Southern California, 2023: self-luminous Tic Tac shapes seen by a Navy ship's crew. Drawing for reference only.
    Each Tic Tac is one case, colored by status. Select one to open it below.

    Start with the Nimitz.

    Seven of the ten cases on this page come from one carrier strike group in one week. Here is what happened, in the order it happened.

    For several days in November 2004, the cruiser USS Princeton, part of the USS Nimitz strike group off Southern California and Baja California, tracked unknown radar contacts dropping from about 80,000 feet to 20,000.

    On November 14, two F/A-18F crews were sent to investigate. Commander David Fravor and his wingman, Lt. Alex Dietrich, saw a patch of churning white water and, above it, a smooth white oblong with no wings, about the size of their own jets. As Fravor spiraled down toward it, it rose to meet him, then accelerated out of sight.

    About ninety minutes later, Lt. Chad Underwood flew out and recorded it on his jet's infrared camera. That clip, released in 2017, is the famous FLIR1 video. Underwood also gave the object its nickname.

    What the Nimitz record holds

    • On recordThe Navy's 2004 range fouler report, released in 2023: solid white, smooth, no wings, about 46 feet long.
    • On recordA UAP Task Force slide saying aircrew debriefs validated the event, with very limited data for analysis.
    • ProposedFor the FLIR1 video, a distant aircraft, according to Mick West. A classified balloon or test program for the event as a whole was floated by AARO's former director.
    • OpenAARO still lists the November 14 visual sighting as unresolved.

    What the record shows.

    Ten cases from 2004 to 2024. These patterns run through them.

    One week defines the shape.

    Seven of the ten cases come from the Nimitz strike group between November 10 and 16, 2004. Two of the three later cases come from the same Southern California waters.

    The best evidence is paperwork.

    The Navy's 2004 range fouler report describes the object in detail and notes that reporting stopped at Third Fleet because there was no process to share it. A widely quoted 2009 "executive summary" has disputed origins.

    Eyewitness and sensor cases split cleanly.

    Fravor and Dietrich saw the object with their own eyes at close range. The FLIR1 video, the 2021 satellite detection and the 2023 ship's camera are sensor images where the range is unknown, and a distant aircraft can look like a featureless capsule.

    The missing data is part of the story.

    Several sailors say longer video existed and that data recorders were collected by men they did not recognize. None of this is documented, and the Navy has not confirmed it.

    Color matters as much as shape.

    The 2004 object was white in daylight. The 2023 objects glowed at night. The 2024 object was dark gray.

    Often told wrong.

    The Nimitz story is one of the most retold in the subject, and several details have drifted.

    The story you may have heardWhat the record shows
    The FLIR1 video is Fravor's footage.
    Lt. Chad Underwood shot it about 90 minutes after Fravor's sighting, and he has said he cannot confirm the famous final acceleration.
    Fravor testified the object was 40 or 46 feet long.
    The 46-foot figure comes from the Navy's range fouler report. Fravor told 60 Minutes it was about the size of his F/A-18F.
    Fravor saw something under the water.
    Under oath he said only that something caused the white water, and it was gone when they turned back.
    Reporters named it the Tic Tac.
    Underwood coined the name, partly inspired by a joke in the 1980 film Airplane!
    The time and place are settled.
    Sources give late morning or about 2 p.m., and about 100 miles southwest of San Diego or about 30 miles off Baja California.

    All Tic Tac cases.

    Listed oldest first. Use the wave filter to read the Nimitz week on its own, and the evidence filter to separate what people saw from what sensors recorded.

      Eyes and sensors.

      A pilot looking at an object a mile away can judge its size against the sea, the sky and their own wingtip. An infrared camera on a gimbal often can't.

      On a sensor screen, a distant airliner and a nearby object can both appear as a small, smooth, featureless shape, and the camera's own movement can make it seem to race across the frame. That is why the skeptical case is strongest for the video cases and weakest for what Fravor and Dietrich saw.

      sensor screen: range unknown eyewitness: close, against the sea The same smooth shape, very different evidence.

      Left off this page.

      These are sometimes counted as Tic Tacs, but are filed elsewhere.

      • American Airlines 2292, 2021A "long cylindrical object," on the Cylinders page.
      • Chiles-Whitted and CoyneCigars with windows or domes, on the Cigars page.