[00:01] bill whitaker on unidentified aerial phenomena
[00:06] this week on 60 minutes we reported on 
unidentified aerial phenomena uap more
[00:12] commonly known as ufos the pentagon says this 
night vision video was taken by navy personnel
[00:20] and is being investigated unusual sightings like 
this one continue to occur and be captured on
[00:27] video last august the pentagon set up the uap task 
force to collect and analyze evidence gathered by
[00:34] service members who are now being encouraged to 
report these strange encounters we met two former
[00:41] navy pilots lieutenant commander alex dietrich 
and commander dave fraver in 2004 they witnessed
[00:50] something shocking inexplicable and seemingly out 
of this world did the thought of ufo enter your
[00:58] mind it was unidentified and that's why it was so 
unsettling to us because we weren't expecting it
[01:04] because we couldn't classify it but what i want to 
be really careful of here is that we don't jump to
[01:11] conclusions right that we don't sensationalize 
this or little green men yeah little green men
[01:17] or extraterrestrial you're seeing something 
that defies explanation right very much yes
[01:29] it was november 2004 and the uss nimitz 
carrier strike group was training about
[01:35] 100 miles southwest of san diego the advanced 
new radar on a nearby ship the uss princeton
[01:42] had detected what operators called multiple 
anomalous aerial vehicles over the horizon
[01:48] descending 80 thousand feet in less than a second
[01:53] fraver and dietrich each with a weapon system 
officer in the back seat were ordered to
[01:58] investigate and found an area of white water in 
an otherwise calm blue sea it appeared to them
[02:05] that an object about the size of a 737 was just 
under the water so as we're looking at this her
[02:14] backseater says hey skipper do you and about 
that got out i said dude do you do you see that
[02:20] thing down there and we saw this little white 
tic tac looking object and it's just kind of
[02:25] moving above the white water area do you ever 
drop your phone and it sort of bounces off the
[02:29] counter top and then bounces off something else 
and it's sort of like no no predictable movement
[02:35] no predictable trajectory i guess it was just it 
was just like a ping pong ball no acceleration
[02:41] very very random acceleration as dietrich 
circled above fravor went in for a closer look
[02:49] so you're sort of spiraling down the tic 
tacs still pointing north-south it goes
[02:54] and just turns abruptly and starts mirroring me 
so as i'm coming down it starts coming up so it's
[03:00] it's mimicking your moves yeah it wasn't where we 
were there we want to see how close i can get so i
[03:05] go like this and it's climbing still when it gets 
right in front of me it just disappears disappears
[03:10] disappears like gone and you saw no visible 
propulsion no no wings or anything to make it
[03:19] fly in our atmosphere no actually when it turned 
and started coming up it was kind of like okay
[03:25] because we have nothing that goes that 
fast and just starts climbing it well
[03:31] seconds later the princeton reacquired the 
target 60 miles away so in a matter of like that
[03:37] yeah it just appeared there in in seconds 
it was 60 miles away later another flight
[03:45] crew encountered what they believed to be the 
same object and briefly locked onto it with a
[03:50] targeting camera before it zipped off again 
they didn't get a visual on it but they did
[03:55] get this flare footage the forward-looking 
infrared so you've got the infrared image right
[04:00] yes and your eyesight yes and the princeton the 
radar all saying there is something out there yes
[04:10] the princeton had been tracking the anomalous 
objects for days dietrich says they were unarmed
[04:16] you know i felt the vulnerability of not 
having anything to defend ourselves to not
[04:22] having any rounds anything on the rails if this 
was in fact a hostile threat and we were engaged
[04:30] i felt vulnerable and then i felt confused 
when it disappeared dietrich says she briefed
[04:36] superiors about what they all saw in no time 
the story of their encounter spread quickly
[04:42] rumors like that spread within seconds 
i would say with less than 30 minutes
[04:46] the entire ship made this happen and what was 
the reception like i actually thought it was
[04:52] kind of funny and started giving us a lot 
of grief ridicule yeah ridicule yeah yeah
[04:58] they made cartoons and on the ship's tv they 
played men in black and independence day and signs
[05:06] they made fun of it oh yeah did anybody take it 
seriously yeah i believe the admiral staff made
[05:11] a few phone calls but that was the extent 
of it the story will continue after this
[05:22] christopher millen served as deputy assistant 
secretary of defense for intelligence
[05:26] for presidents clinton and george w bush and was 
on the staff of the senate intelligence committee
[05:32] he had access to top secret government programs 
he says what dietrich and fravor witnessed
[05:38] demonstrated technological capabilities beyond 
those of the u.s military's most advanced aircraft
[05:45] in the case of the nimitz they seem to these 
vehicles seem to have unlimited loiter time
[05:51] which we don't have we're limited in terms 
of of altitude it's hard to design something
[05:56] that functions well at ground level that can go 
you know to 60 000 or 80 000 feet and then drop
[06:02] and then yeah and then drop down to the 
deck or drop to 20 000 feet and you know
[06:07] it's like a straight vertical line in seconds 
yeah in seconds and this has been captured on
[06:12] radar yeah i've talked to some of the radar 
operators who observe that then the acceleration
[06:19] is beyond any far beyond anything that we that 
we're capable of what's the fastest one of
[06:25] our jets can go probably for a very brief 
period of time 1500 or 2000 miles an hour
[06:32] nothing near the degree of acceleration that 
has been observed in some of these cases there's
[06:36] nothing we could build that would be strong enough 
to endure that amount of force and acceleration