Philip Klass' 10 Principles For Investigating UFOs
These are taken from the book, 'UFOs Explained' by Philip Klass.
1. Basically honest and intelligent persons who are suddenly
exposed to a brief, unexpected event, especially one that
involves an unfamiliar object, may be grossly inaccurate in
trying to describe precisely what they have seen.
2. Despite the intrinsic limitations of human perception when
exposed to brief, unexpected and unusual events, some details
recalled by the observer may be reasonably accurate. The problem
facing the UFO investigator is to try to distinguish between
those details that are accurate and those that are grossly
inaccurate. This may be impossible until the true identity of the
UFO can be determined, so that in some cases this poses an insoluble problem.
3. If a person observing an unusual or unfamiliar object
concludes that it is probably a spaceship from another world, he
can readily adduce that the object is reacting to his presence or
actions when in reality there is absolutely no cause-effect relationship.
4. News media that give great prominence to a UFO report when it
is first received, subsequently devote little if any space or
time to reporting a prosaic explanation for the case when all the
facts are uncovered.
5. No human observer, including experienced flight crews, can
accurately estimate either the distance/altitude or the size of
an unfamiliar object in the sky, unless it is in very close
proximity to a familiar object whose size or altitude is known.
6. Once news media coverage leads the public to believe that UFOs
may be in the vicinity, there are numerous natural and man-made
objects which, especially when seen at night, can take on unusual
characteristics in the minds of hopeful viewers. Their UFO
reports in turn add to the mass excitement which encourages still
more observers to watch for UFOs. This situation feeds upon
itself until such time as the news media lose interest in the
subject, and then the "flap" quickly runs out of steam.
7. In attempting to determine whether a UFO report is a hoax, an
investigator should rely on physical evidence, or the lack of it
where evidence should exist, and should not depend on character
endorsements of the principals involved.
8. The inability of even experienced investigators to fully and
positively explain a UFO report for lack of sufficient
information, even after a rigorous effort, does not really
provide evidence to support the hypothesis that spaceships from
other worlds are visiting the Earth.
9. Whenever a light is sighted in the night skies that is
believed to be a UFO and this is reported to a radar operator,
who is asked to search his scope for an unknown target, almost
invariably an "unknown" target will be found. Conversely, if an
unusual target is spotted on a radarscope at night that is
suspected of being a UFO, an observer is dispatched or asked to
search for a light in the night sky, almost invariably a visual
sighting will be made.
10. Many UFO cases seem puzzling and unexplainable simply because
case investigators have failed to devote a sufficiently rigorous
effort to the investigation.