On November 14, 2004, Commander David Fravor and Lieutenant Commander Alex Dietrich of the USS Nimitz Carrier Strike Group visually observed a 40-foot white object shaped like a Tic Tac candy hovering above a churning patch of ocean southwest of San Diego; the USS Princeton's Aegis radar had been tracking objects descending 80,000 feet in under a second for days prior.

When Fravor banked toward the object, it mirrored his maneuver and then accelerated away before reappearing 60 miles away at a pre-briefed rendezvous point. Lt. Cmdr. Chad Underwood subsequently captured FLIR video of the object. The Pentagon formally released that footage on April 27, 2020, confirming its authenticity. Both pilots testified before the U.S. Senate Armed Services Committee.