Klass's involvement in the UFO field can be traced to his reading of journalist John G. Fuller's "Incident at Exeter" (1966), about a series of UFO sightings in and around Exeter, New Hampshire. Noting that many of the Exeter UFO incidents took place close to high-power electric lines, Klass suspected that the UFO reports were best explained as a previously unknown type of plasma or ball lightning that might have been generated from the power lines or their transformers. A plasma, thought Klass, could be consistent with many UFO reports of bright lights moving erratically; a highly charged plasma might further explain the reported effects of UFOs on the electrical systems of airplanes and automobiles. Klass wrote up his theory in a review of Fuller's book which was published in Aviation Week. This was followed by another skeptical review of work by the National Investigations Committee on Aerial Phenomena (NICAP). These articles garnered Klass tremendous attention within the UFO community, and, as Howard Blum put it, "... as if overnight, he had been christened by both friends and foes 'the country's leading UFO debunker'".