Underwater Tic Tac near Haiti
From the UAP Encyclopedia, the open encyclopedia of UFO and UAP history · 🗓️ Event
Contents 8
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| Date | January 2010 |
|---|---|
| Topics | Beings & bodies (topic), Military encounters (topic), Government programs (topic) |
| People | John Baughman |
| Testimony | Shellenberger testimony, p. 170 |
| Year | 2010 in UFO history |
| Timeline | 2010 on the UAP Timeline |
| Sources | 5 |
The underwater Tic Tac near Haiti is a sighting reported by John Baughman, a former US Navy petty officer. He says that in January 2010, while the aircraft carrier USS Carl Vinson was off Haiti for earthquake relief, he saw a white, "Tic-Tac"-shaped object about 20 feet long just beneath the surface beside the ship before it "darted" into the depths.[5] He told a supervisor, who dismissed it, and the sighting was not reported through official channels. He went public in 2021.[5][1] A 2024 timeline submitted to Congress lists the account under January 2010.[5] It rests on Baughman's word alone.
The account
The UFO timeline compiled by Michael Shellenberger and submitted as written testimony to the House Oversight Committee summarises Baughman's story as follows.[5]
- Where he was. Baughman saw the object from the deck of the Carl Vinson near Haiti.[5]
- What he saw. It was "barely beneath the surface", white and about 20 feet long, shaped like a Tic Tac, and it quickly "darted" into the depths.[5]
- How it vanished. "It was definitely a solid object, but when it descended, its forward end rapidly collapsed in on itself and disappeared."[5]
- The supervisor. Baughman told his work-centre supervisor. He was not debriefed or told to file a report, and the supervisor brushed it off with a crude remark that everyone sees strange things in the ocean.[5]
- No official record. The timeline concludes that the event "likely did not make its way into Navy or UAPTF reporting channels or Congress" before Baughman told a journalist in 2021.[5]
The earlier version of this article, drawing on the 2021 report by the On the Trail of the Saucers blog and on TweakTown, added further details.[1][2]
- Baughman served in the Navy from 2008 to 2013.[1][2]
- He was on a short break, sitting with his legs over the edge of the ship's SAM launcher deck.[1][2]
- He decided to speak out after hearing the former Navy pilots David Fravor and Alex Dietrich describe the 2004 Nimitz encounter.[1][2]
- He acknowledged that "it could have been just about anything".[1][2]
Both of those pages refused access for this rewrite, so these details could not be rechecked. The timeline places him on the "flight deck" rather than the missile-launcher deck.[1][2][5]
The deployment
- The order. The Carl Vinson's Haiti mission is well documented. On 14 January 2010 the Navy reported that the carrier had been ordered to deploy to Haiti, on 13 January, for humanitarian assistance and disaster-response missions after the earthquake.[3]
- Where it was. At the time it was in the Atlantic, having left Norfolk after a four-year refuelling and overhaul to take part in the Southern Seas 2010 deployment. It was to stop briefly off Mayport, Florida, to take on equipment and supplies.[3]
- Other ships. USS Bataan, Fort McHenry, Carter Hall, Normandy, Underwood and John L. Hall were also ordered to sail, with the hospital ship Comfort preparing. Helicopters such as H-53 Sea Stallions and H-60 Seahawks were readied for relief work.[3]
The earlier version of this article said the carrier was ordered to Haiti on 12 January, hours after the earthquake, and left in February. The Navy report read here gives the order as 13 January and does not cover the departure.[3]
Context
- The Nimitz encounter. Baughman's description echoes the 2004 Nimitz "Tic Tac" encounter, made public in December 2017. On 14 November 2004, Commander David Fravor saw "an object, white and oval, hovering above an ocean disturbance", about 40 feet long. The name "Tic Tac" was coined by Lieutenant Commander Chad Underwood, who recorded the infrared video.[4]
- Water and UAP. The 2021 intelligence-community report on UAP noted that some objects appeared able "to submerge into the water", while cautioning that such observations could reflect sensor error or misperception.[4]
- Other cases. A 2019 Navy video from USS Omaha showed a spherical object appearing to descend into the sea. Mick West suggested it was "just a plane".[4]
- AARO. The earlier version of this article noted that the Pentagon's All-domain Anomaly Resolution Office includes "transmedium" objects, which move between air and water, in its remit; that is not covered in the sources read here.
Assessment
- One witness. The sighting rests on Baughman's account alone, given more than a decade later.[5]
- No record. No log, report, photograph or second witness is cited in the sources read here, and the timeline itself suggests it never entered official reporting.[5]
People and topics
- U.S. Navy — The U.S. naval service, whose pilots reported the UAP encounters revealed in 2017.
- John Baughman — Navy veteran who described an underwater Tic Tac near Haiti.
- Nimitz Tic Tac encounter — The November 2004 encounter between Navy pilots and a white Tic Tac-shaped object off California.
- AARO — The Pentagon office set up in 2022 to investigate UAP.
- Transmedium — Able to move between air, space and water.
On the Timeline
- AAWSAP special access program request (29 November 2009) — BAASS gets clearances, but the Air Force won't talk without a special access program.
- UFOs and Nukes press conference (27 September 2010) — Former military officers hold a press conference about UAP at nuclear weapons sites.
See every 2010 event on the UAP Timeline →
Further reading
- USS Nimitz UFO incident — Wikipedia · en.wikipedia.org · archived copy
- U.S. congressional hearings on UFOs — Wikipedia · en.wikipedia.org · archived copy
References
- "New Navy witness says he saw a Tic Tac operating underwater", On the Trail of the Saucers (Medium, 2021) · medium.com · archived copy
- "New UFO update: US Navy shares sighting of underwater 'Tic Tac'", TweakTown · tweaktown.com · archived copy
- "USS Carl Vinson deploys to respond to Haiti earthquake", U.S. Army · army.mil · archived copy
- USS Nimitz UFO incident — Wikipedia · en.wikipedia.org · archived copy
- Michael Shellenberger, written testimony to the House Oversight Committee (13 November 2024), pp. 170–171 · oversight.house.gov
Facts in this article are drawn in part from the Wikipedia article “USS Nimitz UFO incident”, available under the CC BY-SA 4.0 licence.
This page was last edited on 29 October 2026. Articles are written in our own words from the sources listed under References; disputed claims are attributed to the people who made them.
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