For two weeks, the operator said, the Princeton had been tracking mysterious aircraft. The objects appeared suddenly at 80,000 feet, and then hurtled toward the sea, eventually stopping at 20,000 feet and hovering.
The specifications of the FA-18 Hornet list their service/combat ceilings as 50,000ft.
Just guessing but the actual max altitude is probably closer to 60,000 ft and even higher for short periods on after burner. Whatever was out there was pretty damned impressive no matter where it came from. Assuming that the reports from the Princeton are accurate; they then hovered at 20,000 ft after performing these aerial gymnastics.
Nice!
Quite a number of such craft have been observed to shoot up out of the sea or dive into the sea at incredible speeds—with no observable problem in their doing so. Think about that. A surprising number of those observations have been from carriers.
While I accept that aliens would represent a different culture and level of intelligence, it is hard to imagine why their craft would bother to fly bizarre patterns. Like dropping 12 miles over the ocean and shooting straight back up, again and again.