Case · C-079

GIMBAL video: object filmed in infrared by an F/A-18 off Florida

Atlantic Ocean, off Jacksonville (Florida) · United States · Jan 21, 2015

In flight Pilots Radar Video

What happened

The video, recorded with the infrared sensor of an F/A-18 from the Theodore Roosevelt Carrier Strike Group during an exercise off Jacksonville, shows an object surrounded by a halo that seems to rotate on its own axis, while the pilots discuss it over the radio. The Navy dates it to January 21, 2015 and defines it as an unidentified aerial phenomenon; after the unauthorized release in 2017, the Department of Defense officially published it on April 27, 2020. Documents from a 2019 Senate briefing, obtained by The Black Vault, report that the pilot reported a steady radar contact approaching from the east, which did not appear to be a false echo.

Proposed explanation

For the Navy and the Department of Defense it remains unidentified. Mick West (Metabunk) believes it is probably a distant aircraft: in his reading, the visible object is the infrared glow of the engines, the rotation an effect of the stabilized pointing system and the halo an effect of the camera's sharpening filter. The UAP Files blog disputes this reading by citing CIA analyses, not public, mentioned by Elizondo, and Luis Elizondo in the book “Imminent” (2024) presents it as an antigravity device.

Official investigation

U.S. Navy; Department of Defense

Official documents

1. Statement by the Department of Defense on the Release of Historical Navy Videos · U.S. Department of Defense · Apr 27, 2020

Sources

1. The Black Vault, the Navy provides the dates of FLIR1, GIMBAL and GOFAST (September 11, 2019) (analysis)
2. Infobae, the details of the statement to Congress by the pilot who filmed GIMBAL (April 7, 2022) (press)
3. Mick West, “Explained: The Navy UFO Videos” (Metabunk, April 27, 2020) (analysis, skeptical)
4. UAP Files, “Debunking the Debunker: My Response to Mick West's Critique” (Substack, August 27, 2024) (analysis, pro-disclosure)
5. Mick West, factual errors in Elizondo's “Imminent” on GIMBAL, FLIR1, GOFAST and Aguadilla (Metabunk, August 23, 2024) (analysis, skeptical)

On this site

People 2

• Mick West
• Luis Elizondo

Claims 3

• Luis Elizondo: Writes that the halo around the object in the GIMBAL video was not a camera artifact or a reflection, that… Disputed
• Luis Elizondo: Announces that To The Stars Academy intends to release previously unpublished footage from real U.S… Partly verified
• Luis Elizondo: Claims under oath that the GOFAST, GIMBAL and FLIR videos were part of the work of the AATIP program of… Partly verified

Inconsistencies 1

• Luis Elizondo: GIMBAL: a cold object or a very hot one?

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UAPgrade's entries are compiled with artificial intelligence (three verifiers with opposing roles) and checked against the sources listed above: how we work. Have a document that changes this entry? Bring it to the Investigations Unit.