20
4
A UFO stalked a US aircraft carrier off the coast of California for days before possibly using a cloaking device to disappear, according to a leaked Pentagon report.
The report, published by Las Vegas news station KLAS, reveals new details of the November 2004 encounter including first hand reports from shocked US Navy personnel.
A video of the strange object, shaped like a Tic Tac mint, emerged last December.
And the report reveals further details of how the UFO was repeatedly spotted during training exercises over a six-day period off the coast of southern California and Mexico.
It was initially seen on radar by the crew of the USS Princeton on November 10, who referred to it in the report as an Anomalous Aerial Vehicle (AAV).
The missile cruiser's chief fire controlman said it started at an altitude of around 60,000ft - the furthest the ship's radar could detect - before "very rapidly" dropping to 50ft.
The object then darted away at such speed it was assumed to be a ballistic missile.
It was seen again on November 14, and several F/A-18 Hornet jets returning to the USS Nimitz were sent to try and trace the object.
But they were unable to detect the UFO itself, with one of the pilots instead reporting a circular disturbance in the water between 50 and 100 metres in diameter.
A Hawkeye surveillance aircraft was also unable to get a "lock on" to the UFO.
According to the report, it was possible "the disturbance was being caused by an AAV but the AAV was 'cloaked' or invisible to the human eye".
Another theory was the object had a "highly advanced capability to operate undersea completely undetectable by our most advanced sensors".
The object was later described by witnesses as an "elongated or a 'Tic Tac' shape" and said it was around 46ft long, "solid white, smooth, with no edges".
It was "uniformly coloured with no nacelles, pylons or wings", the report claimed.
F/A-18 pilot David Fravor later revealed the object appeared to notice the US aircraft before zooming away.
He said: "It takes off like nothing I've ever seen.
"One minute it's here, and off, it's gone."
The retired Navy pilot claimed the technology appeared to be incredibly advanced and well ahead of anything available to humans.
And the report concluded it was an aircraft completely unknown to either the US or any other nation.
Mr Fravor, 53, told the Washington Post in January: "I literally chased the thing and it started to mirror us, it was like it became aware we were there. I cut across to see if I could get closer and it rapidly accelerated and disappeared.
"Within a matter of a second it was gone.
“I know what I saw, it was impressive, it had incredible performance, obviously I wasn’t in a hostile act with it, you’d have your hands full if you were."