In 1997, twenty years after commanding Operação Prato, Captain Uyrangê Hollanda gave a filmed interview to Brazilian UFO researchers Ademar Gevaerd and Marco Petit, stating that his team had directly observed the objects, photographed them close-up, and believed them to be intelligently controlled. He described the classification order and his own growing conviction that the phenomenon was real. Three months later he was found dead.

In the interview Hollanda described objects approaching the team's equipment, hovering at close range, and maneuvering in ways inconsistent with any known aircraft. He said the 500+ photographs and 16 hours of film had been classified and he had been ordered not to speak about the investigation publicly. His death was ruled a suicide by hanging, but family and colleagues disputed the finding, noting he had seemed energized by the decision to speak out. The interview itself was documented and excerpts appear in Brazilian UFO Magazine archives.