Varginha craft (1996)
Also: Varginha object; Brazilian cigar craft; submarine-shaped object
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The visual record
Illustrations, recordings and archival references — each with its own provenance. A documented source is a starting point for investigation, not a verdict on its explanation.
Varginha's Nave do ET landmark
Varginha's UFO-themed water tower, built after the 1996 case made the town famous. Location context — a monument to the story, not the craft or the creature the witnesses described.
ubirajararodrigues51 · 2008 ↗CC BY-SA 2.0Licence terms ↗Resized and WebP-converted for display; content unchanged.Varginha's municipal case dossier
A cultural-record dossier, distinct from physical evidence of the reported 1996 craft.
Varginha municipal tourism ↗Link only — rights with the publisherAn interpretation of the reports
AI interpretation of Carlos de Souza's description of the object he says came down near Varginha in January 1996: school-bus sized, cigar-shaped 'like a submarine', punctured and crumpled, with light smoke. The Brazilian military attributes the case to a balloon; not a photograph, not evidence.
UAP Record · ImageGen ↗Original illustrationCarlos de Souza (translated clip) · 0:04:33
Open the source at the cited time. The episode thumbnail is video packaging, not a photograph of the reported subject.
American Alchemy / Jesse Michels ↗YouTube-hosted preview and player; not relicensedCarlos de Souza (translated) · 0:23:21
Open the source at the cited time. The episode thumbnail is video packaging, not a photograph of the reported subject.
American Alchemy / Jesse Michels ↗YouTube-hosted preview and player; not relicensedJesse Michels · 0:48:24
Open the source at the cited time. The episode thumbnail is video packaging, not a photograph of the reported subject.
American Alchemy / Jesse Michels ↗YouTube-hosted preview and player; not relicensedThe object said to have come down near Varginha, Brazil in January 1996. Carlos de Souza, an ultralight pilot, says it was “the size of a school bus”, cigar-shaped “like a submarine”, punctured, with foil-like material that returned to shape. James Fox and Jesse Michels retell his account; the Brazilian military cites a balloon and a homeless man.
Read the full account
The craft account comes mainly through Carlos de Souza and James Fox. In a translated clip de Souza says “It was the size of a school bus” and asks himself “Is it a submarine?”; elsewhere he says “It was like a cigar, a cylinder. Today, it’s known as a tic tac.” Fox summarises the witnesses he interviewed as describing an object “cylindrical shaped like a school bus, like a cigar” with no control surfaces. Jesse Michels adds that “this cigar- shaped tic-tac craft seemed to have some sort of puncture”, that de Souza “held the material in his hands” and watched it return to its “original form”, and that soldiers arrived and made him leave.
Michels calls the case “literally a modern Roswell but in Brazil in 1996” and notes the parallel with the Roswell material. The craft is inseparable from the creature story: three girls reported a brown, oily-skinned being with red eyes the same week, and Fox’s film argues the two are linked. The being has its own record.
Explanations offered: a balloon and a misidentified person (the Brazilian government’s account), a crashed non-human craft with recovered occupants (Fox and de Souza), and a case inflated by later retelling. The record is banded contested: many witnesses, no physical evidence in the corpus.
Reported characteristics
Every value is a report, not a specification.
| shape | Cigar or submarine-shaped cylinder with no control surfaces; hull punctured and crumpled after impact. |
|---|---|
| size | “The size of a school bus.” |
| lights | None described in flight; smoke from the wreckage. |
| sound | A rushing sound as it passed, by de Souza’s account. |
| motion | Low, unstable flight followed by a descent into a field. |
| era | January 1996. |
Explanations offered
Balloon and a misidentified person (Brazilian government account)
Crashed non-human craft with recovered occupants
Case inflated by later retelling
Mentioned in the corpus
Passages this record cites, with the stamp of the block each quote sits in.
Army Captures Live Alien (Hospital Report Revealed!) 21 December 2025
“My Hospital Operated On An Alien!” -Top Surgeon [Exclusive Interview] 31 January 2026
- 0:01:07 ▶ Jesse Michels
It is literally a modern Roswell but in Brazil in 1996.
- 0:23:21 ▶ Carlos de Souza (translated)
It was like a cigar, a cylinder. Today, it's known as a tic tac." The same shape.
- 0:43:18 ▶ James Fox
it was cylindrical shaped like a school bus, like a cigar, had no control services, that kind of thing.
- 0:01:07 ▶ Jesse Michels
Brazil’s Defense Minister Says They’ve Had Alien Contact [AD FREE MEMBERS RELEASE] 11 June 2026
- 0:48:24 ▶ Jesse Michels
this cigar- shaped tic-tac craft seemed to have some sort of puncture in it. Gas was coming out of the back. It crashed on something called the Myolini farm. An ultralight pilot named Carlos Dooza, who's also a geography teacher, held pieces of the craft in his hands.
- 0:48:24 ▶ Jesse Michels
I Debated UFOs With America’s Top Skeptic (It Got Ugly...) 9 July 2026
- 2:50:50 ▶ Jesse Michels
This uh ultralight pilot and geography teacher Carlos Doza finds it. Uh he picks up part of the material. This whole military crew comes from the Issa base which is right nearby. They confiscate the material from him.
- 2:50:50 ▶ Jesse Michels
A Weekend With Bob Lazar: Inside Area51's UFOs 13 April 2026
- 2:51:48 ▶ Jesse Michels
he held the material in his hands and it went he would kind of mess with it and then it would go back into its original form.
- 2:51:48 ▶ Jesse Michels
On the map
Sources on this record
- 0:04:33 Army Captures Live Alien (Hospital Report Revealed!) · Carlos de Souza (translated clip) ▶
It was the size of a school bus. dogs and no noise at all. We kept watching it because there was smoke, a light smoke wrapped around it. But I even joked with her. What is that? Is it a submarine?
- 0:23:21 “My Hospital Operated On An Alien!” -Top Surgeon [Exclusive Interview] · Carlos de Souza (translated) ▶
It was like a cigar, a cylinder. Today, it's known as a tic tac." The same shape.
- 0:43:18 “My Hospital Operated On An Alien!” -Top Surgeon [Exclusive Interview] · James Fox ▶
it was cylindrical shaped like a school bus, like a cigar, had no control services, that kind of thing.
- 0:48:24 Brazil’s Defense Minister Says They’ve Had Alien Contact [AD FREE MEMBERS… · Jesse Michels ▶
this cigar- shaped tic-tac craft seemed to have some sort of puncture in it. Gas was coming out of the back. It crashed on something called the Myolini farm. An ultralight pilot named Carlos Dooza, who's also a geography teacher, held pieces of the craft in his hands.
- 2:50:50 I Debated UFOs With America’s Top Skeptic (It Got Ugly...) · Jesse Michels ▶
This uh ultralight pilot and geography teacher Carlos Doza finds it. Uh he picks up part of the material. This whole military crew comes from the Issa base which is right nearby. They confiscate the material from him.
- 2:51:48 A Weekend With Bob Lazar: Inside Area51's UFOs · Jesse Michels ▶
he held the material in his hands and it went he would kind of mess with it and then it would go back into its original form.
- 0:01:07 “My Hospital Operated On An Alien!” -Top Surgeon [Exclusive Interview] · Jesse Michels ▶
It is literally a modern Roswell but in Brazil in 1996.
Built from graph nodes N-SPECIES-0109.