The article below was published in the daily newspaper La Prensa, Buenos Aires, Argentina, April 14, 1998.
After the phenomena of Nahuelito and the holy water, the city of Bariloche has experienced in recent days a new esoteric attraction with the possible sighting of UFOs, which were allegedly filmed by an enthusiast and caused power outages by consuming energy from the local power plant. Yesterday, Channel 6 of this city of Rio Negro broadcast the contents of a videotape recorded by a family camcorder last Sunday, when several residents all described strange and bright apparitions in the two of the city. The film, whose authenticity was confirmed by technicians of the channel, shows luminous objects that diffuse colored lights above the neighborhood of Dina Huapi.
The phenomenon would have been repeated last Tuesday, and in both cases, the city was taken by a violent electrical outage. According to information from the CEB, the consumption of electrical energy in Bariloche was this Sunday "between 5 and 6 times higher than normal" according to recordings made a few seconds before a series of power cuts occurred.
"It's as if something had taken the power", explained engineer Carlos Campo, in charge of the CEB's electrical service, who confirmed that during the night of Sunday there was a "current overload" that melted a section of the electrical voltage cables.
According to him, the energy demand peaks "could have two explanations: a large three-phase short circuit or an external energy demand, yet we did not find any short circuits."
On Tuesday night, the power outage phenomenon recurred, coinciding with a new UFO sighting by many residents who described the supposed aircraft as objects that emitted intense lights.
The CEB issued an official statement: "Once again, no evidence could be found that could determine that the outage was the result of some intentional act that affected the power lines, or that any other logically explicable circumstance could have had an impact on the interruption of the electricity distribution."