david fraver, a graduate of the top gun naval flight school and flying in his wing, lieutenant alex dietrich who has never spoken publically about the encounter. >> i never wanted to be on national tv. no offense. >> reporter: so why are you doing this? >> because i was in a government aircraft, because i was on the clock. and so, i feel a responsibility to share what i can. and it is unclassified. >> reporter: it was november 2004, and the u.s.snimitz carrier strike group was training 100 miles southwest of san diego. for a week the advanced new radar on a nearby ship, the uss princeton, detected what operators called multiple anomolous aerial vehicles, descending 80,000 feet in less than a second. on november 14th, fraver and dietrich are, each with a weapon's system officer in a back seat were diverted to investigate. they found an area of white water the size of a 737 in an otherwise calm blue sea. so as we are looking at this, her back seater said, hey, skipper do you? and about that got out and i said, dude, do you see that ng above the white water. >> reporter: as he circled above, fr

and when it disappeared, i mean, it was just -- >> alex dietrich has never told her story publicly. navy pilots who spoke with 60 minutes, who have seen or picked up on sensors, similar objects, often moving fast with odd shapes. and no-obvious method of propulsion. >> there is definitely something that -- i don't know who is building it, who's got the technology, who's got the brains. but there -- there's something out there that was better than our airplane. >> reporter: no one is using the word, aliens, here. the pentagon calls them uaps. unidentifi unidentified-aerial fe fom that. >> there is a whole fleet of them. >> my gosh. they're all going against the wind. the wind's 120 miles. >> pilot ryan graves picked this up on his infrared sensor in 2004 off the coast of san diego. >> look at this thing. >> the highest probability is it's a threat-observation program. >> could it be russian? or chinese technology? >> i don't see why not. >> reporter: late-last year, the pentagon created a task force to look at the nature and origin of uaps. what are these things? where do they come f

. >> reporter: alex dietrich has never sold her story publicly.ne of several navy pilots who spoke with "60 minutes" who picked up on similar objects moving fast with odd shapes and no obvious method of propulsion. >> there's definitely something that i don't know who is building t whose got the technology or brains, but there's something out there that was better than our airplane. >> reporter: no one is using the word aliens here. the pentagon calls them uaps, unidentified aerial phenomenon. >> there is a whole fleet of them. >> my gosh. >> they are all going against the wind. the wind is 120 miles from the west. >> reporter: pilot ryan graves picked this up on his infrared sensor in 2004 off the coast of san diego. >> look at that thing. >> it's rotating. >> reporter: the highest probability is it's a threat observation program. >> could it be russian on chinese technology? >> i don't see why not. >> reporter: late last year the pentagon created a task force to look at the nature and origin of uaps. what are these things? where do they come fro

top gun naval flight school and commander of the f/a-18 squadron flying at his wing, lieutenant alex dietrichken publicly about the encounter. >> dietrich: i never wanted to be on national tv, no offense. >> whitaker: so, why are you doing this? >> dietrich: because i was in a government aircraft, because i was on the clock, and so i feel a responsibility to-- to share what i can. and it is unclassified. >> whitaker: it was november 2004, and the u.s.s. "nimitz" carrier strike group was training about 100 miles southwest of san diego. for a week, the advanced new radar on a nearby ship, the u.s.s. "princeton," had detected what operators called "multiple anomalous aerial vehicles" over the horizon, descending 80,000 feet in less than a second. on november 14, fravor and dietrich, each with a weapons systems officer in the backseat, were diverted to investigate. they found an area of roiling whitewater the size of a 737 in an otherwise calm, blue sea. >> fravor: so, as we're looking at this, her back-seater says, "hey, skipper, do you..." and about that got out, i said, "dude, do you-- do you