Several months ago, my office received a protected disclosure from Eglin Air Force Base indicating that there was a UAP incident that required my attention. I sought a briefing regarding that episode and brought with me Congressman Birchett and Congresswoman Luna. We asked to see any of the evidence that had been taken by flight crew in this endeavor and to observe any radar signature, as well as to meet with the flight crew. We were not afforded access to all of the flight crew, and initially, we were not afforded access to images and to radar. Thereafter, we had bit of a discussion about how authorities flow in the United States of America, and we did see the image, and we did meet with one member of the flight crew who took the image. The image was of something that I am not able to attach to any human capability, either from the United States or from any of our adversaries. And I'm somewhat informed on the matter, having served on the Armed Services Committee for seven years, having served on the committee that oversees DARPA and advanced technologies for several years. When we spoke with the flight crew, and when he showed us the photo that he'd taken, I asked why the video wasn't engaged, why we didn't have a FLIR system that worked. Here's what he said. They were out on a test mission that day over the Gulf of Mexico. And when you're on a test mission, you're supposed to have clear airspace, not supposed to be anything that shows up. And they saw a sequence of four craft in a clear diamond formation for which there is a radar sequence that I and I alone have observed in the United States Congress. One of the pilots goes to check out that diamond formation and sees a large floating what I can only describe as an orb. Again, like I said, not of any human capability that I'm aware of. And when he approached, he said that his radar went down he said that his FLIR system malfunctioned and that he had to manually take this image from one of the lenses and it was not automated in collection as you would typically see in a test mission. So I guess I'll start with Commander Fravor. How should we think about the fact that this craft that was approached by our pilot had the capability of disarming a number of the sensor and collection systems on that craft?
Well, I think this goes to that national security side and you can go back through history of things showing up at certain areas and disabling our capabilities, which is disheartening. And for us, like I said, it completely disabled the radar on the aircraft when it tried to do it. The only way we could see it is passively which is how he got that image. So I think that's a concern on what are these doing not only how do they operate but their capabilities inside to do things like this.
And how should we think about craft moving in a very clear formation equidistant from one another in a diamond in all of the phenomenon? Perhaps, Mr. Graves, that you've analyzed have we ever seen multiple craft in a single formation?
I have one particular case and that was during the Gimbal incident. The recording on the At FLIR system shows a single object that rotates. You hear the pilots refer to a fleet of objects that is not visible on the FLIR system. And that was something that I witnessed during the debrief as part of the radar data on the situational awareness page. I would like to add whoever congressman, there's small bit of anger, I would say. I would feel that those pilots are still facing that difficulty in reporting this topic and they don't have the tools to be able to mitigate this issue. It just goes to show how serious this is and why this is such an important issue for our pilots and for our nation.
It was stated explicitly to me by these test pilots that if you have au of AP experience, the best thing you can do for your career is forget it and not tell anyone. Because any type of reporting, either above the surface or below the surface, does have a perceived consequence to these people. And that is a culture we must change if we want to get to the truth. Mr. Chairman, I would observe that perhaps as we move forward from this hearing there are some obvious next steps. Every person watching this knows that we need to meet with Mr. Grusch in a secure compartmentalized facility so that we can get fulsome answers that do not put him in jeopardy and that give us the information we need. Second, I would suggest that the radar images that were collected of this formation of craft out of Eglin Air Force Base, and specifically the actual image taken by the actual flight crew that we can actually validate be provided. To the committee subpoenaed if necessary, so that we're able to track how to get this type of reporting and analysis done in a more fulsome way. That would be my recommendation. Humbly. As a guest here of the Fine Oversight Committee, I yield back.