Aerolíneas Argentinas 674, Bariloche
The crew of a Boeing 727 on approach to San Carlos de Bariloche said a bright light placed itself between the airliner and the runway, while the airport's lights failed.
1995 CE · -41.15, -71.16 · status: disputed
The account
On the night of 31 July 1995 Captain Jorge Polanco was bringing Aerolíneas Argentinas flight 674 from Buenos Aires into Bariloche when, he said, a light that grew from dim to brilliant shadowed the plane and seemed to rush at it before stopping a few hundred metres away. The crew of a Gendarmería aircraft reported seeing a light too, and a power cut darkened parts of the city and the airport at about the same time. Polanco kept telling the story for decades, and the case was mentioned again in Pentagon UAP files released in 2026.
The sceptical view
Accounts disagree on how long the light was seen (from about 15 to 45 minutes), on times and on what each witness saw. No radar track or physical evidence has been published, and the power cut has never been shown to be connected to the light.
The researched reading
A respected pilot’s report, partly backed by other aircrew, but with no radar, no film and inconsistent timings. A misjudged ordinary light plus a coincidental power cut fits most of it, while the lack of data leaves a residue unexplained.
| Explanation | Weight | Why |
|---|---|---|
| Something known, misidentified | 34% | A bright light seen from a descending airliner at night over mountains can be another aircraft, the Gendarmería plane itself, a bright planet or ground lights; pilots’ distance estimates for unfamiliar lights are notoriously poor. No radar track shows a nearby object. |
| Perception, memory or mind | 16% | The witnesses’ accounts disagree on duration (15 to 45 minutes), times and what each saw; decades of retelling by the captain have likely hardened and enlarged the story. |
| A known natural phenomenon | 12% | A power cut and a light at the same time invite a causal link that was never shown; grid faults are common, and a coincidence plus an ordinary bright light would produce this pattern. |
| Genuinely anomalous | 12% | Several crew in two aircraft and people on the ground reported a light that seemed to manoeuvre near the airliner; without data the case cannot be closed, which leaves real but modest room. |
| A poorly understood natural phenomenon | 10% | Some reports of a light over the lake and a blackout echo earthquake-light or plasma claims, though nothing of the kind was measured. |
| Secret human technology | 8% | Military or government aircraft operating unannounced near an airport is possible, but Argentina had no known exotic programme. |
| A hoax or fabrication | 5% | There is no sign that the crew invented the encounter, though some media retellings added details. |
| Undetermined | 3% | The share the reading had given to fabrication on doubt rather than evidence: the record does not settle it either way. |
Official position: No conclusion by Argentine aviation authorities was published; the case is cited, without resolution, in US UAP files released in 2026.