Person
P.J. Hughes
Also known as PJ Hughes, Patrick Hughes, Patrick "PJ" Hughes
- Aviation Electronics Technician, Second Class Petty Officer, VAW-117 (E-2C Hawkeye squadron, USS Nimitz), 2004
P. J. Hughes was a U.S. Navy aviation technician with the USS Nimitz's E-2 Hawkeye airborne early-warning squadron in 2004. One of his routine jobs was securing the aircraft's data recorders, which the crew call "bricks".
He says that on 14 November 2004 he locked away the recorders from the E-2 that Kevin Day had first used to try to intercept the objects. Soon afterwards his commanding officer arrived with two men Hughes had not seen come aboard and took the recorders away in bags. He also says an E-2 crew member told him he had to sign a non-disclosure agreement. His account parallels Gary Voorhis's description of AEGIS data being collected on the Princeton.
David Fravor rejects the idea that anyone came to the ships or that witnesses signed NDAs. Popular Mechanics notes that the E-2 squadron was not under Fravor's command, so he might not have known. No record of the recorders' removal has been released.
Sources: Popular Mechanics (2019) · Nimitz incident record
Facts and claims
- claimed Responsible for securing the hard-drive data recorders from the E-2 Hawkeye that Kevin Day first tried to use to intercept the objects. Source: popularmechanics.com (archived)
- claimed He says that shortly after he secured the E-2's data recorders (“bricks”) in a classified safe, his commanding officer came with two unknown individuals and told him to hand them over: “We put them in the bags, he took them, then he and the two anonymous officers left.” — P.J. Hughes Source: popularmechanics.com (archived)
- claimed In the documentary The Nimitz Encounters he said a friend in the E-2 aircrew told him he had to sign a non-disclosure agreement about the incident. — P.J. Hughes Source: popularmechanics.com (archived)
- claimed David Fravor has disputed parts of the enlisted witnesses' accounts: he says only the four aircrew saw the Tic Tac, no one was asked to sign non-disclosure agreements, “men in suits” never came to the ships, and claims of a 10-minute video are untrue; he thinks the squadron's tapes were probably recorded over by accident. — David Fravor Source: popularmechanics.com (archived)
- claimed In his own words, on camera in 2019: after the flight that was airborne during Fravor's intercept, “my commanding officer showed up at our door with two guys in Air Force uniforms and took those bricks”, within half an hour of his locking them away; they were signed out to the commanding officer and “they never came back”. — P.J. Hughes Source: P.J. Hughes: the E-2 Hawkeye's data recorders taken after the Tic Tac encounter (UFO Megacon, 2019) at 1:08
- claimed In 2023 he said the two men wore U.S. Air Force flight suits and never spoke, that he believes they were couriers qualified to carry classified material rather than investigators, and that he assumes chain-of-custody paperwork was done above his level “but I have no way to prove it”. — P.J. Hughes Source: UAP Navy Encounters: Patrick “PJ” Hughes on the Hawkeye data taken from the Nimitz (Tim Ventura, 2023) at 11:15
Connected files
People
- Gary Voorhis (fellow witness) — Hughes's account parallels Voorhis's description of AEGIS data being collected on the Princeton
- Kevin Day (fellow witness) — Hughes says he secured the E-2 recorders Day had first used to try to intercept the objects
- David Fravor (disputed by) — Fravor rejects the idea that anyone came to the ships or that witnesses signed NDAs
Incidents
- USS Nimitz “Tic Tac” encounter (witness)
Videos
- P.J. Hughes: the E-2 Hawkeye's data recorders taken after the Tic Tac encounter (UFO Megacon, 2019) (appears in)
- Tic Tac witness Gary Voorhis: interview for The Nimitz Encounters (2019) (discussed in)
- UAP Navy Encounters: Patrick “PJ” Hughes on the Hawkeye data taken from the Nimitz (Tim Ventura, 2023) (appears in)