Chad Underwood
Navy aviator whose jet recorded the 2004 'FLIR1' Tic Tac video
- Service
- US Navy F/A-18 aviator (later lieutenant commander)
- Date
- November 14, 2004
- Known for
- Recording the 'FLIR1' / 'Tic Tac' infrared video
- Video released
- Officially by the Defense Department, April 2020
Navy aviator whose jet's infrared camera recorded the 'FLIR1' or 'Tic Tac' video during the 2004 USS Nimitz encounter.
What is Chad Underwood known for?
Chad Underwood was a US Navy F/A-18 aviator with the Nimitz Carrier Strike Group in 2004. On November 14, 2004, after David Fravor's flight reported a white object off southern California, Underwood flew in the second wave of fighters. His aircraft carried an advanced infrared targeting pod, and he recorded an object on it.
That clip became known as 'FLIR1' or the 'Tic Tac' video, and Underwood is often credited with the 'Tic Tac' nickname. He later said his main concern at the time was keeping the camera on the object so he could bring a recording back to the ship.
The video leaked online years later and was published by The New York Times in December 2017. In April 2020 the Defense Department officially released FLIR1 together with the GIMBAL and GOFAST videos, saying the objects remained unidentified. Analysts disagree about what the footage shows; it does not by itself establish the object's size, distance or speed.
Recorded the FLIR1 'Tic Tac' video in the second wave of fighters.
Mentioned on these pages
Sources
- U.S. Department of Defense, 'Statement by the Department of Defense on the Release of Historical Navy Videos' (April 2020)Primary text
- Wikipedia, 'USS Nimitz UFO incident'Reference
- Wikipedia, 'Pentagon UFO videos'Reference
Pictures on profile pages are drawn placeholders, not likenesses. Public-domain portraits and photographs will replace them.