MilitaryJan 2015Atlantic Ocean off the U.S. East Coast

Gimbal and GoFast encounters

Name: Gimbal and GoFast encounters
Start: 2015-01
Location: Atlantic Ocean off the U.S. East Coast

A frame from the Navy Gimbal video, recorded off the U.S. East Coast in 2015 United States Navy, Public domain, via Wikimedia Commons

Navy F/A-18 crews training off the U.S. East Coast recorded the infrared videos later known as Gimbal and GoFast. Pilots in the squadron, including Ryan Graves, have said they saw unidentified objects repeatedly in 2014 and 2015.

Evidence

Significance

Sources

OfficialStatement by the Department of Defense on the Release of Historical Navy Videos (opens in a new tab)U.S. Department of Defense (now hosted at war.gov) / 2020-04-27
OfficialNAVAIR FOIA Document Library (GIMBAL and GOFAST video files) (opens in a new tab)Naval Air Systems Command
FirsthandWritten testimony of Ryan Graves, House Oversight subcommittee hearing (opens in a new tab)U.S. House Committee on Oversight / 2023-07-26

How sources are chosen and tiered

10 Feb 2023Military

U.S. jets shoot down three high-altitude objects

Days after downing a Chinese balloon, U.S. fighters shot down unidentified objects off northern Alaska (Feb. 10), over Canada's Yukon (Feb. 11) and over Lake Huron (Feb. 12). President Biden later said they were most likely balloons tied to private companies, recreation or research.

Evidence

Significance

Nov 2004Military

USS Nimitz 'Tic Tac'

Navy F/A-18F crews from the USS Nimitz strike group, cued by the cruiser USS Princeton's radar, reported intercepting a smooth white object they could not identify. Another crew recorded the infrared video the Pentagon later released as FLIR1.

Evidence

Significance

5 Mar 2004Military

Campeche infrared video

A Mexican Air Force surveillance plane on a drug patrol recorded up to 11 lights visible only in infrared over Campeche. The Defense Ministry gave the video to a UFO researcher, and it aired in May 2004; a later analysis argued the lights were distant oil-platform flares.

Evidence

Significance

1999Military

COMETA report published

A French working group of about a dozen specialists led by retired Air Force General Denis Letty issued a report on UFOs and defense and took it to Prime Minister Lionel Jospin. It cautiously raised an extraterrestrial explanation; it was a private effort, not a government study.

Evidence

Significance