US Navy fighter pilot reveals close encounter with UFO that was ‘not from this world’

A US fighter pilot has described in detail the moment he spotted a "UFO" hovering above the ocean off the coast of San Diego.

Pilot David Fravor was one of four people in two fighter jets sent to monitor the object after it was spotted by his bosses on board the USS Nimitz in 2004.

He told they came across a disturbance above the water that was causing the sea to foam and "a white object, oblong, pointing north".

He added: "It had no wings. So you think, 'okay, it's a helicopter', but there's no rotor wash in the water, there's no rotors and when helicopters move from side-to-side they're kind of slow then pick up speed going the other way.

"This was extremely abrupt - like a ping pong ball bouncing off a wall. It would hit and go the other way and change directions at will.

"Then the ability to hover over the water then start a vertical climb from zero up to about 12,000ft and then accelerate in less than two seconds and disappear is something that I've never seen in my life."

When asked about those who may be sceptical of the claim, he replied: "It's easy to doubt what we can't explain and this isn't the first account of people seeing a UFO.

"In this situation you're talking about four people, all eyeballs on, ranging in experience from relatively new in a fleet squadron... to myself who had over 16 years of flying.

"I would argue that it wasn't a weather balloon, it wasn't a flare it was an actual object we tracked for around five minutes."

Eerie footage released by the Pentagon shows the unidentified object being chased by the US fighter jets.