Page 9 - The 'X' Chronicles Newspaper - Febrary/March 2020 Edition

Navy Pilot Speaks Out About Tic-Tac UFO 9

The Navy pilot who

recorded video of a Tic

Tac-shaped UFO says he

doesn't want to be

associated with aliens

ByAria Bendix

The unidentified flying object resembled a Tic
Tac.
That's how the Navy pilot Chad
Underwood described the thing he saw hurtling
through the sky on November 10, 2004.
Underwood recorded the object using an
infrared camera after his commanding officer,
David Fravor, spotted the unusual shape during
a flight-training exercise.
For 15 years, Underwood remained
largely silent about the encounter. But in an
according to the DOD report. At another point, — and also just logic, when it comes to, you
interview with New York magazine this week,
it veered violently to the left. know, physics."
he revealed what it was like to capture the UFO
Underwood said the object definitely He also dismissed the possibility that the
on video.
wasn't a bird or a weather balloon, and since it UFO was part of covert tests done by NASA or
"At no point did I want to speculate as to
was moving at a speed of about 138 mph, it was the military. He told New York magazine that he
what I thought this thing was — or be
presumably too slow to be an aircraft. It also was never instructed to keep silent about what
associated with, you know, 'alien beings' and
had no wings or heat, which ruled out the he saw.
'alien aircraft' and all that stuff," Underwood
possibility of a cruise missile. "I've got top-secret clearance with a ton
told the magazine. "It is just what we call a
The DOD report said the object of special-project clearances," he said. "So, it's
UFO. I couldn't identify it. It was flying. And it
"possibly demonstrated the ability to 'cloak' or not like I wasn't cleared to know. Clearly,
was an object. It's as simple as that."
become invisible to the human eye" and might whatever it was, if it was a government project,
His video represents one of three known
be able to "operate undersea completely I did not need to know." []
instances in which Navy pilots caught an
undetectable by our most advanced sensors."
unknown aerial object (the Navy prefers that
term over UFO) on camera. The other two
There's no evidence that the object was
instances were on January 21, 2015.
extraterrestrial in nature
A strange white object flying through Though UFOs are associated with aliens in
the sky popular culture, unidentified objects don't

necessarily come from space — the term just
Before Underwood spotted the flying object, he applies to anything unknown.
said, he received a tip from his commanding Seth Shostak, a senior astronomer at the
officer that there might be something strange in Search for Extraterrestrial Intelligence Institute,
the sky. A few days earlier, a guided-missile previously told Business Insider that about 10%
cruiser called the USS Princeton had been of UFO sightings didn't have explanations.
tracking about eight to 10 mysterious flying Alien civilizations, he added, would know about
objects near the Catalina and San Clemente our existence only if they were within about 35
islands in California. light-years of Earth.
"Dave Fravor was like, 'Hey, dude. "If they're more than 35 light-years
BOLO.' Like, be on the lookout for just away, there hasn't been enough time for our
something weird," Underwood told New York signals to get to them, and for them to decide,
magazine. 'Well this is worth the money to go down there
The two men were working on combat and fly around,'" he said. "The really good
exercises on the Navy's Super Hornet fighter evidence that we're being visited still has failed
jets. The day Underwood recorded the UFO, to surface."
weather reports indicate there was a clear blue Aliens aside, experts have offered other
sky — but all of a sudden, he spotted what he explanations for Underwood's UFO sighting.
called "a blip on his radar." Former members of the military have
An unclassified report from the suggested that glitches in the infrared camera in
Department of Defense described the object as Underwood's plane may have been playing
"solid white" and "smooth," with a shape tricks on the pilot's eye.
resembling "an elongated egg." Underwood was Retired Air Force Maj. James McGaha
the one who coined the nickname "Tic Tac." also proposed that the object might have
"The thing that stood out to me the most appeared to veer dramatically because of the
was how erratic it was behaving," he told New way Underwood was maneuvering his aircraft.
York magazine. "Its changes in altitude, air Underwood told New York magazine that he
speed, and aspect were just unlike things that wasn't able to see the object when it veered to
I've ever encountered before flying against the left but believed it moved on its own.
other air targets." "That part kind of sucks, because I can't
At one point, the object appeared to dart confirm that the object aggressively accelerated
from a high altitude of about 60,000 feet to a that way," he said. "But I have my feelings,
low altitude of 50 feet "within seconds," based off of my experience with my equipment