Route 35 'railway car', Bahía Blanca
Three truck drivers saw a lit object like a railway car in a field, which rose over the road and left with a reddish flame.
1962 CE · -38.72, -62.27 · status: account
The account
At 4:10 a.m. on 12 May 1962 Valentino and Gauro Tomassini and Humberto Zenobi, driving from Bahía Blanca, came within about 100 m of the object. It was part of a May 1962 flap in which UFOs were also reported at the Espora air base and Puerto Belgrano naval base, and a local newspaper photographer published a photo of a ball-shaped object.
The sceptical view
No physical traces are recorded; the flap coincided with intense press attention.
The researched reading
Three drivers saw something lit near the road during a heavily reported flap. With no follow-up it cannot be resolved, but a misread vehicle or aircraft is the leading ordinary answer.
| Explanation | Weight | Why |
|---|---|---|
| Something known, misidentified | 34% | A lit, elongated shape in a field at 4 a.m. could be a vehicle, lit machinery or an aircraft on approach to the nearby Espora naval air base; the drivers were 100 m away in the dark. |
| Genuinely anomalous | 20% | Three witnesses at close range describing a lit object rising and leaving with a flame is hard to reduce to a star, and it was not followed up. |
| Perception, memory or mind | 14% | The May 1962 Argentine flap had intense press coverage, which shapes how witnesses interpret odd lights. |
| A known natural phenomenon | 8% | Ground fog over fields can make lights appear to rise and float. |
| A poorly understood natural phenomenon | 8% | A luminous ground phenomenon could fit a glowing object near the ground. |
| Undetermined | 7% | The share the reading had given to fabrication on doubt rather than evidence: the record does not settle it either way. |
| A hoax or fabrication | 5% | The flap included a newspaper photograph of doubtful origin; embellishment is possible, though the drivers did not seek gain. |
| Secret human technology | 4% | Military bases nearby were active, but no exercise has been linked to the night. |
Official position: No official conclusion; the case is known from the press reports of the 1962 flap.
Connections in the atlas
- Villa Urquiza sighting
- Deception Island lights, Antarctica
- Puerto Belgrano naval base reports
- Espora air base videos
- Trancas encounter, Tucumán
- Miguel Tohmé's UFO photographs, Bahía Blanca
- Dionisio Llanca abduction