# Daugherty 2019: When Top Gun Pilots Tangled with a Baffling Tic-Tac-Shaped UFO

> Greg Daugherty, 2019. 6 records on Mysteries Department cite it. Kevin Day's witness account.

Source: https://mysteriesdept.com/sources/SRC0D1SBG3W7HJZ/when-top-gun-pilots-tangled-with-a-baffling-tic-tac-shaped  
Publisher: Mysteries Department  
Licence: CC BY 4.0 (credit Mysteries Department and link the page)  

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[Sources](https://mysteriesdept.com/sources)[2004 Nimitz encounter and the Navy videos](https://mysteriesdept.com/mysteries/nimitz-encounter)Daugherty 2019

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# When Top Gun Pilots Tangled with a Baffling Tic-Tac-Shaped UFO

Greg Daugherty, 2019. _HISTORY_.

An article of 16 May 2019 (updated 2025) built around Kevin Day's first on-camera interview: more than 100 tracks above 80,000 feet over a week, his team's initial suspicion of a fault, and his wish to intercept.

**2004 Nimitz encounter and the Navy videos** ArticleChecked against the original0

## What it's used for here

Kevin Day's witness account.

## Cited by on this site 6 records

[Real objects were tracked at the altitudes and speeds described.](https://mysteriesdept.com/mysteries/nimitz-encounter/answers/ANS0D1SC3D219TV/real-objects-were-tracked-at-the-altitudes-and-speeds)

Answer

ANS

[Day says his team checked the system and confirmed it was working before treating the tracks as real.](https://mysteriesdept.com/mysteries/nimitz-encounter/evidence/EVD0D1SC3MW2GQE/day-says-his-team-checked-the-system-and-confirmed-it-was)

Evidence

EVD

[Kevin Day](https://mysteriesdept.com/mysteries/nimitz-encounter/people/FIG0D1SBM0W4CVW/kevin-day)

FIG

[The 2004 Nimitz encounter and the Navy videos](https://mysteriesdept.com/mysteries/nimitz-encounter)

The mystery article

MYS

[What were the Princeton's radar tracks?](https://mysteriesdept.com/mysteries/nimitz-encounter/questions/QST0D1SBVB80ZGV/what-were-the-princetons-radar-tracks)

Question

QST

[Kevin Day: As the Princeton's senior radar operator, saw well over 100 anomalous…](https://mysteriesdept.com/mysteries/nimitz-encounter/accounts/WIT0D1SBT465K8A/kevin-day-as-the-princetons-senior-radar-operator-saw-well)

WIT

## Cite it

```
Daugherty, G. (2019). When Top Gun Pilots Tangled with a Baffling Tic-Tac-Shaped UFO. HISTORY. https://www.history.com/articles/uss-nimitz-2004-tic-tac-ufo-encounter
```

[Read it free at history.com](https://www.history.com/articles/uss-nimitz-2004-tic-tac-ufo-encounter)

Key

**SRC** 0D1SBG3W7HJZ

Kind

Journal article

Rights

The publisher's

Kept

29 Oct 2026, for editors

Checked

Against the published article

Added by

[apollo](https://mysteriesdept.com/u/apollo)

The record

Bibliographic records are CC0. Take this one as CSL-JSON, BibTeX or RIS.

[CSL-JSON](https://mysteriesdept.com/sources/SRC0D1SBG3W7HJZ/when-top-gun-pilots-tangled-with-a-baffling-tic-tac-shaped/csl.json)