Barrio La Gloria, Mendoza province landing encounter — September 19, 1979

Aníbal Raúl Petracini, an Argentine Army corporal living in Barrio La Gloria, Godoy Cruz, Mendoza, described an experience during the night of September 19–20, 1979. Roberto Banchs later interviewed him in military offices. Petracini said he believed he had awakened, crossed to the kitchen and pulled aside a curtain while his wife and daughter remained asleep. Through the window he reportedly saw a small grey metallic circular object resting on vacant ground twenty to twenty-five metres away. His estimate was only 1.5–2 metres across and half a metre high. Beside it appeared a static humanlike figure about forty to fifty centimetres tall, wearing very white clothing with an opaque green band or visor at eye level. He associated it with a reassuring, wordless impression, but could not recover a specific message. He did not remember the observation ending or returning to bed. After his alarm awakened him in the morning, he remained uncertain whether the episode had been real or a dream. A later search with his wife found no traces. Banchs favoured a psychological, probably hypnopompic experience around waking, citing the absent traces and corroboration, the unchanged curtain and gaps in the account. His interpretation is distinguished from proof of an external visitor or a deliberate hoax. The plate reconstructs the kitchen-window scene and unusually tiny figure, preserving uncertainty about the event and the transition around sleep.