--- title: "Navy Pilot Describes Bizzare “Tic Tac” UFO Encounter He Filmed" description: "In 2004, navy pilots spotted something extremely unusual: slow-moving objects flying in groups of five to ten off the West Coast at 28,000 feet — too high to be birds, too slow to be a plane. They then unexplicably rose to 60,000 feet without producing any sonic booms. It’s a puzzling and unique UFO encounter […]" date: "2019-12-20" modified: "2019-12-20" authors: - name: "Victor Tangermann" job_title: "Senior Editor" link: "https://futurism.com/authors/victor" url: "https://futurism.com/navy-pilot-bizzare-ufo-encounter" categories: - "Future Society" tags: - "Navy" - "UFO" - "ufos" --- # Navy Pilot Describes Bizzare “Tic Tac” UFO Encounter He Filmed ![Chad Underwood, a Navy pilot who recorded a bizarre UFO encounter in 2004, talked to Intelligencer about what he saw in an interview.]() *\Image: US Department of Defense\* In 2004, Navy pilots spotted something extremely unusual off the West Coast — groups of objects flying in erratic, inexplicable flight patterns. Years later, the puzzling UFO encounter was revealed by *The* *New York Times*, with [multiple]() [eyewitnesses]() stepping forward over the years to describe what they saw. One of three [infrared videos](), recorded in 2004 and shared by the *Times* in 2017, shows an odd oblong unidentified object, garnering it the nickname "Tic Tac." Now Chad Underwood, the Navy pilot who recorded the video at the time, talked to *New York Magazine's* *Intelligencer* about what he saw in [a new interview](). "You’re not going to see it with your own eyes until probably 10 miles, and then you’re not going to be able to visually track it until you’re probably inside of five miles, which is where \[commanding officer, who first made visual confirmation of the UFO,\] Dave Fravor said that he saw it," Underwood told *Intelligencer*. "The thing that stood out to me the most was how erratic it was behaving," he added. "It was just behaving in ways that aren’t physically normal. That’s what caught my eye. Because, aircraft, whether they’re manned or unmanned, still have to obey the laws of physics." What puzzled Underwood the most was that the "Tic Tac" bore no resemblance to any conventional aircraft. "Well, normally, you would see engines emitting a heat plume. This object was not doing that," he said. And it certainly was no bird. "You don’t see birds at 5,000 or 10,000 or 20,000 feet. That’s just not how birds operate." **READ MORE:** [Navy Pilot Who Filmed the ‘Tic Tac’ UFO Speaks: ‘It Wasn’t Behaving by the Normal Laws of Physics’]() \[*Intelligencer*\] **More on the videos:** *[Navy Confirms That Three UFO Encounter Videos Are Real]()* ## Author I've been at Futurism since 2017, where my role has evolved to encompass design, writing, and increasingly editing. I've always been fascinated by space exploration and advanced transportation, which I've leaned into by interviewing luminaries in those fields while closely following the dimensions of policy and regulation that allow next-generation projects to succeed -- or, sometimes, to fail. I'm also keenly interested in the effects of generative AI on society, policies, and democratic institutions, as well as clean energy, physics and biology, and the vagaries of tech leadership. My work for Futurism has been cited by publications including Ars Technica, Gizmodo, PC Magazine, Jalopnik, Fox News, and the New York Post. I spent my childhood living in locations including Manila, the Philippines, and Geneva, Switzerland, attended McGill University, and now live in Toronto, Canada. Before Futurism I worked at AskMen and a small photography studio. In my free time, I'm an avid gardener, foodie, and craft beer lover, as well as a maker of artisanal hot pepper sauces. I have a magnificent dog named Freida. ### Author social links [Bluesky]()