UFO debunker, aviation journalist Klass dies at 85

Daily Herald & Washington Post ^ | August 12, 2005 | Claudia Levy THE WASHINGTON POST

[lunarbicep]

Philip J. Klass, 85, an aviation journalist who investigated UFO sightings and wrote books debunking reports of visits from outer space, died Aug. 9 at a nursing facility in Cocoa, Fla. He had cancer.

Klass lived in Washington for more than 50 years before moving to Merritt Island, Fla. , in 2003.

[Cincinatus]

A voice of sanity in the field of UFO investigation. R.I.P.

[AlexW]

Calling Coast to Coast...Calling Art Bell....Calling George Noory...

Now that I am in Europe, I listen to my home town station from Memphis, via internet.
Well, at 8 AM here, I have nothing but Coast to Coast, and it is such a hoot.
I had no idea that 9/11 was a setup job and the towers were
destroyed by preset charges....wow
I had no idea that space allians were all around us....wow

I now know so much more...Beam me up to the mother ship.

[mtbopfuyn]

The truth is out there.

[Rockingham]

Klass was sincere and intelligent as a UFO debunker, even though, like all of us, he had many lapses and failings. While Klass and his views were anathema to many UFO "believers," the better of them, such as physicist Stan Friedman, respected Klass, engaged him honestly, and valued his efforts as a check against fruitier UFO exponents and claims.

Here is part of what UFO Magazine said about Klass: " . . . regardless of the positions he took on UFO-related matters, Klass made a name for himself in the field and, at the very least, tried to keep ufology honest even as he denied that such a field of study should exist." Coast to Coast AM offered that: "While Klass was at odds with many in the study of ufology, he'll be missed as the field's most legendary skeptic."

Odd, is it not, that over many years, the leading UFO skeptics such as Klass and UFO believers like Friedman have commonly carried on a more intelligent and mutually respectful debate than is the norm on highly charged subjects in American politics? On the death of a contentious conservative opponent, would the Left immediately offer respectful comments such as Klass has received from ufology?

With the potent but corrupting advantages of pervasive mainstream media bias and dishonesty on political subjects, the Left long ago gave up the conventions of respectful and honest debate with conservatives. Remarkably, the absence of mainstream media coverage has helped to elevate the tone of debate on UFOs; and unlike UFO believers, the Left is now so swollen with righteousness that it cannot accept the legitimacy of differing opinions.

[JRios1968]

Maybe he was beamed-up...now where did I put that tinfoil??

[mdmathis6]

He didn't die...he just went home(sarcasm)

[Condor51]

"While some people gaze at the sky and see flying saucers or bright balls of light," one biographer observed, "Klass sees Gremlins, Hobgoblins, Fairies and Angels dancing on the heads of pins."

Okay, I rewrote it. But my version is funnier.

[Malsua]

This true debunker was flat ass wacky

Yeah, he was. I knew him and Friedman and Linda Mouldy Cow back in the early 90s. Most of his answers for things that were truly unanswerable went about like this. "While I cannot explain what may have caused this, we can rule out UFOs and EBEs since those don't exist". Huh? Heh.

He was a truly misguided individual who simply chose to ignore the small percentage of genuinely unresolvable issues. There are lots of fakes, lots of mis-id but when those are ruled out, certain things still remain. I don't know what these anomolous things are but until we do, we cannot rule out much of anything. It'd be "cool" if it were UFOs for Alpha Centari. It's probably something mundane and boring, but we don't know until we know.

[Cincinatus]

Most of his answers for things that were truly unanswerable went about like this. "While I cannot explain what may have caused this, we can rule out UFOs and EBEs since those don't exist". Huh? Heh.

A typical true believer's mischaracterization of what Klass was saying.

Klass' belief was that unexplained aerial phenomena ultimately would be proven to have prosaic explanations, even if they could not be resolved at the time, whether by lack of data or incomplete gathering of evidence. His point was that too many of the True Believers were ready to jump to the ET explanation, even though that was the most unlikely of causes.

One aspect of UFOlogy unexplored by most researchers is the possiblity of undiscovered natural explanations for UFOs. Hyaek was widely ridiculed for his "swamp gas" explanation back in the 1960's, but the fact remains that there are many natural phenomena on Earth that are unknown and/or understudied. An exmaple might be natural piezoelectricity -- build up of large static electric charges in quartz-rich rocks in the Earth's crust, suddenly discharged by the strain-relief of a major earthquake. Such discharges could ionize gas and produce flying, glowing "spheres" moving at high velocity.

[Rockingham]

The problem for UFO skeptics is that while many of their natural phenomena explanations are reasonable and plausible, on the particulars, those explanations are often conjectural and inconclusive and sometimes rely on what is otherwise regarded as fringe science. The UFO subject remains fascinating in no small part because the better advocates and skeptics are all pushing against the mainstream in taking up the subject, attentive to the evidence and to scientific and technical issues, and careful in their arguments. Many UFO skeptics are believers in the possibility of UFOs as ET visitors, and many UFO researchers are fierce debunkers of much supposed UFO evidence.

[js1138]

Belief in UFOs is a conservative/liberal issue.

Who knew?

[Cincinatus]

on the particulars, those explanations are often conjectural and inconclusive and sometimes rely on what is otherwise regarded as fringe science.

Like for instance?

I don't deny that there are good skeptics and poor ones. My point was that Klass was a skeptic who debunked many UFO reports through the use of basic, mainstream science.

The ET explanation for UFOs is most certainly an extraordinary claim and hence, requires extraordinary proof. Klass merely pointed out how far from that standard the believers of same were.

[Cincinatus]

The Klass Files

[Rockingham]

Here is a "for instance" in the form of a letter from the December 18, 1886, issue of Scientific American:

CURIOUS PHENOMENON IN VENEZUELA

To the Editor of the Scientific American:

The following brief account of a recent strange meteorological occurrence may be of interest to your readers as an addition to the list of electrical eccentricities:

During the night of the 24th of October last, which was rainy and tempestuous, a family of nine persons, sleeping in a hut a few leagues from Maracaibo, were awakened by a loud humming noise and a vivid, dazzling light, which brilliantly illuminated the interior of the house.

The occupants completely terror stricken, and believing, as they relate, that the end of the world had come, threw themselves on their knees and commenced to pray, but their devotions were almost immediately interrupted by violent vomiting, and extensive swellings commenced to appear in the upper part of their bodies, this being particularly noticeable about the face and lips..

It is to be noted that the brilliant lights was not accompanied by a sensation of heat, although there was a smoky appearance and a peculiar smell.

The next morning, the swellings had subsided, leaving upon the face and body large black blotches. No special pain was felt until the ninth day, when the skin peeled off, and these blotches were transformed into virulent raw sores.

The hair of the head fell off upon the side which happened to be underneath when the phenomenon occurred, the same side of the body being, in all nine cases, the more seriously injured.

The remarkable part of the occurrence is that the house was uninjured, all doors and windows being closed at the time.

No trace of lightning could afterward by observed in any part of the building, and all the sufferers unite in saying that there was no detonation, but only the loud humming already mentioned.

Another curious attendant circumstance is that the trees around the house showed no signs of injury until the ninth day, when they suddenly withered, almost simultaneously with the development of the sores upon the bodies of the occupants of the house.

This is perhaps a mere coincidence, but it is remarkable that the same susceptibility to electrical effects, with the same lapse of time, should be observed in both animal and vegetable organisms.

I have visited the sufferers, who are now in one of the hospitals of this city; and although their appearance is truly horrible, yet it is hoped that in no case will the injuries prove fatal.

Warner Cowgill. U. S. Consulate, Maracaibo, Venezuela November 17, 1886

Why is this letter significant? It can be taken as describing an unusual manifestation of ball lightning, but that does not do it justice. Long before anyone knew what radiation was, the Cowgill letter describes the effects of severe radiation on the human body and on trees. Logically, this is inconsistent with a hoax, as is that it was reported to a leading scientific publication and comes from a US government official in foreign service.

Most stunning of all, the part in bold describes what can be regarded now as neutron radiation inducing secondary ionizing radiation and consequent injuries. Neutrons seem to have passed through the victims and been absorbed by the soil, elements of which became activated and produced more radiation. Consequently, the victims suffered burns on those parts of their bodies closest to the ground, not on those parts closest to the light source above them.

Here is a description of neutron activation as generated by nuclear weapons:

Neutron-Induced Activity. If atomic nuclei capture neutrons when exposed to a flux of neutron radiation, they will, as a rule, become radioactive (neutron-induced activity) and then decay by emission of beta and gamma radiation over an extended period of time. Neutrons emitted as part of the initial nuclear radiation will cause activation of the weapon residues. In addition, atoms of environmental material, such as soil, air, and water, may be activated, depending on their composition and distance from the burst. For example, a small area around ground zero may become hazardous as a result of exposure of the minerals in the soil to initial neutron radiation. This is due principally to neutron capture by various elements, such as sodium, manganese, aluminum and silicon in the soil. This is a negligible hazard because of the limited area involved.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Talk:Nuclear_explosion

The assessment that neutron activation in soil is a "negligible hazard because of the limited area involved" is in the context of a nuclear bomb -- and not if one is lying on top of the soil that has been activated! Most likely, some of the victims died, perhaps even all of them.

Suppose that one treats the Cowgill letter as describing not a UFO hovering too closely, but ball lightning. What then produced the radiation effects? If ball lightning, then it would be of an unusual type because ball lightning is not thought to produce radiation.

This gets me back to my comment: the UFO subject can be fascinating because even the skeptics often have to suggest that unprecedented effects are at work even if those effects are purely natural in origin.

[Cincinatus]

This gets me back to my comment: the UFO subject can be fascinating because even the skeptics often have to suggest that unprecedented effects are at work even if those effects are purely natural in origin.

I believe I made exactly that point in post #11. The possibility that UFOs are clues to poorly understood natural processes is more intruiging to me than that they are extraterrestrial spaceships.

But I don't get this example as an answer to my question to you of a case where "fringe science" is cited by a skeptic to explain away a UFO report. What's the connection?

[LIConFem]

This is a sad day. The world now has no Klass...

[Rockingham]

I misunderstood your question. For instance, many of the alien abduction debunkings smack of fringe science and offer improbable explanations.

Fantasy prone personality, fantasies induced by leading questions during hypnosis, and fantasies during hypnogogic and hypnopopmic sleep are often cited as explaining alien abduction beliefs; but such explanations cannot account for many cases in which claimed abductees are not fantasy prone, transcripts and recordings show a complete absence of leading questions during hypnosis, and alien abduction experiences are recalled while fully awake.

The most compelling abduction cases, such as that of Travis Walton, are usually ignored by debunkers or rejected based on categorical claims that even multiple witnesses are liars and deluded, even if they are of good reputation and standing. The Walton abduction: began in the view of terrified witnesses; law enforcement immediately investigated but could not shake their accounts; and the traumatized abductee reappeared after a few days and described what happened without benefit of hypnosis.

Debunkers tend to fall back on lines of attack that amount to not much more than accusing Walton and his crew of brush clearers as being young, poorly educated blue collar roughnecks. Yet, whatever science driven skeptics may think of such types, they tend not to withstand close questioning by cops; and is it not hard to deride nerdy skeptics as working out residual teenage jealousies about dumb jocks being popular and getting the girls in high school.

Trace abduction evidence, like implants with exceptional properties, are usually also ignored or categorically described by debunkers as ordinary in nature -- despite some implants having extreme magnetism and isotope profiles consistent with metallic meteorites instead of terrestial origins.

And just how is it that abduction accounts from the 1960s and early 70s seem to describe laproscopic procedures unknown to the medicine of the era? Can it be said that fantasies generated by unschooled human minds anticipate medical advances on the cusp of development? If so, that would be remarkable in ways that UFO debunkers seem unwilling to contemplate.

Yet, in the end, alien abduction cases are mostly stories that can neither be disproved by skeptics nor confirmed by physical evidence or the sheer number of such stories. To me, the case for alien abductions is open and eludes resolution, being neither proved nor disproved.

A full-scale, bona-fide debunking would seem to require some new element, such as latent psychosis due to the lasting effects of marijuana -- and including damage to the children of users. Yet such a proposition would seem likely to be scarcely less disputed than alien adbuction claims -- and unlikely to explain the Travis Walton case and the handful of other cases of equivalent weight.

[Malsua]

I just want to add that having an open mind doesn't suggest you're so open your mind falls out.

I was called a true believer up thread. Quite funny if you know my history. My articles on this subject debunked MANY sighting as common things. I'm not going to rehash all my history on this, but I'm very qualified to comment. Anyone who was on CompuServe in the mid 90s would recognize my name straight away as a serious investigator. I'm not a true believer by any stretch. If there's no science, it was just a story.

Klass dismissed pretty much everything as a previously unknown aerial phenomina. Oh boy. Let's explain something as something we can't explain. Yeah, that makes sense. I'm with him that we can't call stuff UFO just because we can't explain it. I'm against it because we can't rule it out. Until we know, we don't know. UFOs from another world are extremely unlikely with known physics. Yes, I get that. Can we rule it out entirely? Not yet.

I have seen something I cannot explain. Do I think it was a an alien from another world? I simply have no idea, it wasn't Venus, that I know for sure. I cannot explain it. Until we know, we don't know. I'm reserving judgement until facts and science resolve it. Klass suggested it was an heretofore unknown atmospheric phenominon. Yeah, that makes sense. Explain away the unknowable with an unknowable explanation.

Klass was fixed on what he believed. No deviation was allowed.