As an F-104 pilot who chased a "UFO" across South Carolina towards Bermuda at speeds up to 1300kts and altitudes exceeding 65,000 ft msl in 1966, I find Mr Klass's explanations of this incident, and indeed, all UFO activity, to be highly suspect. Perhaps in this instance I too was chasing nothing more than a high altitude weather balloon. Or perhaps, what I saw was a flock of very fast, high flying geese. Or perhaps, even swamp gas, (over the ocean?). I for one would like to see a real investigative study into what goes here, not another sophmoric miscreant explanation that seems prevalent from Mr Klass.

Having read a number of books by Roswell sceptics as well as Roswell supporters, I must say that Mr. Klass employs the same tactics as some of his "adversaries" by conveniently forgetting to mention key evidence that makes his claims crackle. This is probably due to the fact that challenging the credibility of top ranking Airforce officials or longtime FBI boss J.Edgar Hoover might be more than the author can pull off.

It is not a wise move, however. Things like J. Edgar Hoover's memo, in which he complains over being denied access to a crashed flying disk, have become sort of public knowledge in our days. You don't have to be a UFO expert to ask yourself at times "Hey, how can he write this knowing that Hoover wrote that?".

Anyway, this is the book which the Trust-Our-Government faction in that everlasting Roswell-Dispute has definitely been waiting for. Now that both sides hold definitive "proof" of their own theory in hands, maybe we could head for more recent UFO events. ;))

People have been using Roswell incident as evidence of extraterestrial visitation. Klass like his other books, uses something most ufo believers like budd hopkins don't use, science and logic. Remember hearsay and conjecture are not evidence.

A more appropriate introduction would be any book by Hynek or Vallee. Young readers should also check the bookshelves at their schools. Avoid this one like the plague!!!!

Klass seems to offer intelligent points. Hynek and others find lack of hoax evidence as proof of authenticity but Klass reminds my students that SCIENCE calls for positive evidence to support a theory, not the lack of evidence to refute a theory. A good lesson in the SCIENTIFIC METHOD that teaches by showing real world mistakes and keeps students interested.

I used this book as a supplement to a UFO story in a reading textbook in a sixth grade class. The author's specific examples and explanations of UFO phenomena are concrete enough that an eleven-year-old can understand them--and enjoy the discovery of reasonable explanations, as my sixth graders did. I think a number of my students now understand that we don't have to swallow bizarre stories; we can analyze them and consider common-sense explanations. What an empowering small book!

The only reason I gave this one star is because it made me laugh. Klass does not even personally investigate some of the sightings and his explanations for some of them are ludicrous. This is the book of a debunker, not a skeptic, as Klass tries to paint himself.

Philip Klass has for many decades been the "arch-debunker" of the UFO phenomenon. By day he worked as an editor of "Aviation Week" magazine, but in his free time he has "investigated" hundreds of previously "unsolved" UFO cases. As the chairman of the UFO subcommittee of CSICOP, the leading anti-UFO organization in America, Klass has become a bonafide hero to his admirers, a "lone voice of reason and science" in the UFO wilderness. Klass has taken a positive delight in debunking all UFO incidents, criticizing UFO witnesses and researchers as con artists or fantasy-prone people whose judgements are unreliable, and generally arguing that the entire UFO mystery is nonsense. To Klass, there are no unexplained UFO cases - the unsolved cases simply haven't been adequately investigated by UFO "skeptics" such as himself. Unfortunately for his admirers, such as the posters listed below, Klass is just as extreme, narrow-minded, and flawed in his UFO "research" as those "true believer" Ufologists he so loves to critique. While I would freely admit that many Ufologists are indeed "true believers" who treat the subject more as a religion than a science, it is also true that Klass's explanations for UFOs are themselves often implausible or run contrary to the known evidence. One famous example is the 1964 UFO case in Socorro, N.M. in which Lonnie Zamora, a respected local policeman, was chasing a speeder when he said he saw a bright flash and heard a loud roar coming from over a nearby hill. When Zamora crossed the hill, he saw a large egg-shaped object with a strange symbol on it, and two men in some kind of spacesuits outside the craft. When they saw him they boarded the craft and it took off, rocking Zamora's patrol car and burning nearby bushes. This case was thoroughly investigated by the Air Force's Project Blue Book (the US government's official investigation of the UFO mystery) and despite its' strong anti-UFO bias (they debunked sightings as much as Klass), even they admitted that Zamora was an honest witness, that he had seen something strange, and listed the case as "unsolved". Klass, however, offered two different explanations for the event - his first explanation was that Zamora had seen some kind of "plasma ball" caused by nearby power lines. However, that theory was shot down by real scientists who argued that "plasma" of the type Klass described was virtually impossible to create in such conditions. So Klass then claimed that Zamora had lied and that the entire event was a hoax. His proof? That a man who lived only a thousand feet from the UFO landing site hadn't heard any strange noises, so no UFO could have landed. What Klass doesn't mention (and he is notorious for conveniently "leaving out" any contradictory evidence) is that the man was hard of hearing, he lived next to a busy highway, and that there were strong wind gusts blowing AWAY from the man's house which could easily have drowned out the noise. Klass also claimed that Zamora was put up to the hoax by Socorro's mayor, who owned the land the UFO presumably landed on. Klass claimed that the Mayor planned to turn the landing site into a tourist attraction to bring business into the isolated little desert town. However, to this day Klass has not offered a single shred of eyewitness evidence that the mayor or Zamora hoaxed the event, and no such "tourist trap" was ever built in Socorro. The UFO landing site remains almost exactly as it was 38 years ago - nothing but desert shrub and cactus, and the rough gravel road leading by the site is still undeveloped. It is more "logical" to assume that Klass simply made up his "explanation" out of thin air than, given Klass's near-total lack of evidence, to believe his "solution" to the case. In addition to Klass, other UFO "debunkers" have also offered numerous explanations for the Socorro case, including that Zamora saw a hot-air balloon (James Easton); that he saw a "desert mirage" (Donald Menzel); and that Zamora saw an early version of the moon lunar lander (US Air Force). However, none of these debunkers have offered any proof whatsoever for their theories either. In fact, one could say that the wide variety of "explanations" is actually evidence that the so-called "skeptics" have no idea of what really happened to Lonnie Zamora at Socorro. The Socorro UFO incident is only one of numerous cases in which Mr. Klass offers "solutions" which are as poorly researched and biased as those of the UFO "true believers" whose work he loves to ridicule. In fact, Klass actually does very little "on-site" research, nor does he talk directly to the UFO witnesses. Instead, his "research" is usually done over the phone from his office in Washington, and his research is of the "armchair investigator" variety. In short, my problem with Mr. Klass is that he is no different from those people he criticizes - he simply goes to the other extreme. Hopefully, someday the UFO mystery will be examined by experts who will take a fresh and objective approach to the phenomenon. Until then, however, the UFO "debate" will continue to be defined by the two current extremes - those who approach UFO cases with a preconcieved belief that UFOs are extraterrestrial spacecraft, and whose "research" not surprisingly indicates that this belief is true; and those debunkers such as Mr. Klass who approach UFO cases with the preconcieved notion that "UFOs can't exist, therefore they don't", and then arrange their "evidence" to prove that point. I have given this book three stars because Mr. Klass does do a persuasive job of proving that some of the UFO cases he describes do have a mundane, conventional explanation. But anyone who "believes" that Mr. Klass is a lonely voice of honesty, reason and open-minded skepticism in the UFO field hasn't seriously examined the evidence. I would recommend that those who read this book also read the works of some "serious ufologists" (and although rare, they DO exist). Among these are Dr. J. Allen Hynek's "The UFO Experience" and "The Hynek UFO Report", Jerome Clark's "UFO Encyclopedia", and Richard Hall's "The UFO Evidence".

This is an excellent book for anyone interested in the field. Those who call this the "usual debunking nonsense" probably swallow ufo tales and other related with far less documentation and research than klass gives for each of these cases. I've heard all the critisizims of the skeptical ufo researcher, and have to say that after reading this, as well as many of the major pro-ufo literature, I'm amazed that anyone could even try to argue that Klass and other skeptics give the material unfair or amature treatment. I've heard many lampoon klass and accuse him of "debunking" unfairly and arbitrarily, but seldom have I heard these critics site specific examples of Klass being wrong. Do yourself a favor and read Klass's cases, which are actually dissected and researched, instead of taken at face value like so many of these cases are. It's a wonderful, eye-opening book.

If you are interested in exploring the truth, you won't find it reading this book! Phil Klass is a government implant whose sole purpose is to debunk any and all facets of UFOLOGY, including The Abduction Phenomenon. Convinced that everything has a "prosaic" explanation, Klass deliberately and dutifly avoids those cases which remain unexplained or for that matter dismiss with any credulity what "alien abduction" may be, if in fact it is not happening. Don't waste your time!

Mr. Klass is a popular forerunner of the skeptics in our society regarding the "u.f.o. phenomenon." In this book, he attepts to express his understanding that human percerption is inherently biased and, therefore, cannot be relied upon for accurate data (with respect to the ufo "abductions"). I think that if you are really interested in the validity of abductees, a thorough understanding of sensation and perception psychology is a necessity. Then, you would be better educated to decide whether there is any credibility to these "abductions." Mr. Klass makes interesting points in this book which are worthy of your time; however, dismissing testimony of an alleged abductee because she was not attractive does raise serious doubts as to Mr. Klass' priorities and scientific methods. I say, buy a book on psychology instead.

Any of the other reviewers who didn't like this book are morons. UFOs don't exist...get over it. A different species from thousands of light years away don't go zipping around in saucers and abduct people just for the heck of it. All you who REALLY want to find out about the UFO contriversy, read this book and everything else Klass has written. It's so refreshing to find a normal, logical person in the UFO contriversy and not some New Agey idiot.