WATCH: US Naval officers reveal 2004 encounter with possible UFO in extraordinary New York Times interview

In an interview with the New York Times, two former US Naval pilots described an encounter with what they believed to be a UFO during an exercise in 2004 that left one pilot saying he "felt weirded out" right after.

According to Cmdr. David Fravor and Lt. Cmdr. Jim Slaight, they were 100 miles out into the Pacific  when they were hailed by radio by an operations officer aboard the U.S.S. Princeton wanting  to know if they were carrying weapons.

The two men recall that they were told, “Well, we’ve got a real-world vector for you,” with the radio operator informing them that the Princeton had been tracking a mysterious aircraft which appeared suddenly at 80,000 feet, before plummeting towards the sea and hovering at  20,000 feet.

Asked to investigate the pilots searched for the object, finding it and describing it as "an aircraft of some kind — whitish — that was around 40 feet long and oval in shape. The craft was jumping around erratically, staying over the wave disturbance but not moving in any specific direction," according to Fravor.

Fravor stated that, as he approached the object, “It accelerated like nothing I’ve ever seen,” adding he was “pretty weirded out.”

The two pilots had other encounter with the object before it once again pulled away.

Fravor recalled that he told another pilot about the encounter, explaining to him, "I have no idea what I saw. It had no plumes, wings or rotors and outran our F-18s,” before adding: “I want to fly one.”

You can read the whole interview here

Video below provided U.S. Department of Defense: