GoFast: 2015 Atlantic Encounter Released, 2017
To The Stars Academy / New York Times UAP Video Release, FLIR1, GIMBAL, GOFAST, Go_Fast_Official_USG_Footage_of_UAP_for_Public_Release.webm
The GOFAST file is one of three declassified U.S. Navy FLIR recordings publicly released on 2017-12-16, timed to the New York Times exposé on the Pentagon's covert AATIP program, showing UAP encounters by naval aviators in 2004 and 2015.
Brief
On December 16, 2017, the New York Times published an exposé on the existence of the Pentagon's secret Advanced Aerospace Threat Identification Program (AATIP) and simultaneously released three Navy FLIR videos, FLIR1, GIMBAL, and GOFAST, documenting UAP encounters by naval aviators in 2004 and 2015. The release was authorized by the Department of Defense and coordinated through To The Stars Academy. The source asset is a video file (.webm) with no embedded text layer; no verbatim quotes or page-level citations can be extracted, and the annotated walkthrough is correspondingly empty.
Metadata
- Agency
- U.S. Navy (DoD authorization via To The Stars Academy)
- Release
- 2017-12-16
- Type
- VIDEO • .webm
- Length
- 19.0 M
- Classification
- UNCLASSIFIED
- Programs
- AATIP
- Tags
- GOFAST, GIMBAL, FLIR1, FLIR sensor, naval aviator encounter, 2004, 2015, AATIP, UAP video
Key points
- Three videos released simultaneously: FLIR1, GIMBAL, and GOFAST, this file is the GOFAST recording.
- Release was tied to the New York Times' public disclosure of the classified AATIP program, marking the first official U.S. government acknowledgment of a dedicated UAP study office.
- Encounters documented span two separate years: 2004 and 2015, involving U.S. Navy aviators.
- DoD authorized the release, with To The Stars Academy serving as the coordinating entity for public dissemination.
- The footage was captured using forward-looking infrared (FLIR) sensor systems aboard naval aircraft.
Most interesting
- AATIP was a black-budget program, its existence was unknown to the public until this December 2017 disclosure.
- To The Stars Academy, a private aerospace and entertainment company, acted as the conduit between the DoD and the press for this release, an arrangement with no clear precedent in declassification history.
- The three videos were released under DoD authorization rather than through a FOIA request, meaning the government chose this moment of disclosure rather than being compelled by it.
- The 2004 encounter (FLIR1 / Tic Tac) and the 2015 encounters (GIMBAL, GOFAST) represent encounters separated by eleven years, suggesting the phenomenon was not a singular event.
- The source file format (.webm) indicates this is the raw video asset itself, not a report or memo, making standard document analysis tools inapplicable.