David Fravor

David Fravor is a retired U.S. Navy Commander who piloted an F/A-18F Super Hornet during a now-famous encounter with an unidentified object on November 14, 2004. He later testified about that encounter under oath before Congress in 2023, making him one of the most prominent military witnesses in the public UAP debate.

What is his military background?

Fravor enlisted in the U.S. Marine Corps at age 17, then transferred to the U.S. Naval Academy two years later. He served 24 years in the military, 18 of them as a Navy jet pilot. He graduated from the U.S. Navy TOPGUN flight program and commanded Strike Fighter Squadron Forty-One (VFA-41), known as the "Black Aces," aboard the USS Nimitz (CVN-68). He completed five deployments to the Persian Gulf, starting with Operation Desert Storm, and retired from the Navy in 2006.

What happened during the 2004 Nimitz encounter?

On November 14, 2004, Fravor was flying about 100 miles southwest of San Diego when he spotted a white, oval object roughly 40 feet long. It had no visible wings, rotors, or propulsion system. The USS Princeton (CG-59), part of the Nimitz Strike Group, had been tracking unusual objects for two weeks before the encounter. Those objects had been observed rapidly descending from 80,000 feet to 20,000 feet.

When Fravor tried to intercept the object, it accelerated so fast it appeared to vanish. It was then detected roughly 60 miles away less than a minute later. Fravor stated: "It's not a bird. It's not a weather balloon. It had no wings, it had no rotors, there was no wash." A second aircraft, flown by Lt. Cmdr. Chad Underwood, recorded the encounter on an infrared camera. That footage, known as the FLIR1 video, was released publicly on December 16, 2017.

How did the public learn about this?

Fravor's account was featured in a December 2017 New York Times article that also revealed the Pentagon's UAP investigation program. The Department of Defense released the FLIR1 video that same month. In May 2021, Fravor appeared on CBS News "60 Minutes" alongside Lt. Cmdr. Alex Dietrich to describe the encounter in detail.

What did he tell Congress?

On July 26, 2023, Fravor testified under oath before the House Oversight Subcommittee on National Security, the Border, and Foreign Affairs. He appeared alongside former fighter pilot Ryan Graves and former intelligence officer David Grusch. In his opening statement, Fravor said the 2004 encounter was captured in a 90-second video but was never formally investigated. He also noted, "For those who don't realize, above 80,000 feet is space," referring to the altitudes the objects had been tracked at. His written statement was published on the House Oversight Committee's official website.