Argentina: Mystery in the sky: “dancing” lights accompanied a pilot from Salta for 35 minutes.

 

Source: El Tribuno (Argentina)

Date: 09.21.2026

Mystery in the sky: “dancing” lights accompanied a pilot from Salta for 35 minutes.

It happened during a night flight between Buenos Aires and Bahía Blanca. Gaspar Gouane told *El Tribuno* that the lights behaved differently from satellites, airplanes, shooting stars, or Starlink trains.

Gaspar Gouane has been flying for 14 years and is accustomed to seeing satellites, shooting stars, airplanes, and even Starlink trains. However, during a night flight between Buenos Aires and Bahía Blanca, he saw something different. Three lights appeared in front of the plane, moved as if dancing, and repeatedly vanished over the course of about 35 minutes. His co-pilot and the three passengers also witnessed the event. Air traffic control had no other flights reported in the area.

The pilot from Salta is still trying to find an explanation for what happened that night. A few days ago, he had taken off from San Fernando Airport in Buenos Aires, bound for Bahía Blanca. He currently lives there, as he works for a company based in that city, piloting its executive jet. His co-pilot and three passengers were also on board.

He departed around 9:00 PM. The flight was scheduled to last approximately one hour and 40 minutes. Everything was proceeding normally until about 10:10 PM—when they were near Tandil—and the lights appeared. There were three of them; they were right in front of the aircraft.

The plane was flying at an altitude of about 8,000 feet (approximately 2,400 or 2,500 meters). The night was completely clear and dark; there were no clouds to obstruct visibility.

At first, Gaspar watched the lights, trying to identify something familiar. But their movements began to baffle him. “You could see the three lights appear; they seemed to dance among themselves—moving side to side and up and down—before vanishing. A short while later, they would reappear, always in the same spot,” the pilot recounted to *El Tribuno*.

For the next 35 to 40 minutes, the lights remained in the same patch of sky as the plane continued its journey toward Bahía Blanca. That was, in fact, one of the details that most baffled those on board. “They didn't get closer to us or move further away. They didn't seem very far off, yet it was hard to gauge their exact position. It felt as though we were never getting any closer, nor were we moving away,” he said.

Gaspar is not only a pilot but also an amateur astronomer and astrophotographer. He regularly uses apps to identify stars, planets, satellites, and other visible celestial objects. One of these is Stellarium; since the plane was equipped with Starlink internet access, he was able to use it mid-flight. He pointed his phone toward the area where the lights were appearing and searched for identification, but found nothing. “If it had been a satellite, the app would have flagged it,” he noted.

They then performed another check. Gaspar contacted Ezeiza Sur—the sector controlling the flight at the time—and asked if there were any registered aircraft in that area. Air traffic control informed him that there were no other reported flights besides his own. He explained what they were observing but received no answer that could identify the objects.

After passing Tandil, they were handed over to Bahía Blanca control. He reported the situation again, but they also had no air traffic recorded in the area and asked him to keep control updated on what he was seeing. Meanwhile, inside the plane, no one needed to be told what was happening.

The co-pilot saw the lights, as did the three passengers. Everyone observed the phenomenon, filming it and taking photographs. The images, captured with a mobile phone on a pitch-black night from a plane in flight, failed to reproduce with the same clarity what was visible to the naked eye. Gaspar insists he does not want to put a label on the event.

He does not claim they were UFOs, nor does he venture extraordinary explanations. His bewilderment stems precisely from his inability to identify something he—after so many years of watching the skies—expected to recognize. "In my 14 years of flying, this is the first time I’ve seen something like this," he stated.

There is a reason why that experience made such a strong impression on him. "I fly more at night than during the day. You get used to seeing satellites, the Starlink satellite train, shooting stars. Even when there’s another plane on the horizon—over the years and with experience, you train yourself and know what you’re looking at. But this is something I’m seeing for the first time."

Gaspar describes himself as a skeptic; perhaps that is why the experience left him with so many unanswered questions. “I don’t attribute it to UFOs. I don’t know. I think anyone can interpret it however they wish. But it wasn’t something I’d consider normal. You’re left with that sense of helplessness—not being able to put a name or an explanation to it.”

The experience came back to mind after footage surfaced showing similar lights observed by many people during the recent blackout in Buenos Aires. Gaspar saw the images and recognized something familiar: they were the very same three lights that, for over half an hour, had seemed to dance in front of his plane somewhere in the sky between Tandil and Bahía Blanca.

[With thanks to Gloria Raquel and El Tribuno. Photo credit El Tribuno]