‘Jetpack man’ haunts pilots again
The US Federal Aviation Administration has launched a probe after a pilot preparing to land at Los Angeles International Airport alerted the control tower about an object that resembled a person flying a jetpack.
“We heard that the jetpack man is back,” an air traffic controller is heard saying in audio obtained by Fox 11 on Saturday. The Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) confirmed in a statement that an “airline pilot reported seeing an object that might have resembled a jetpack 15 miles east of Los Angeles International Airport” around 2:45pm on Thursday.
“The FAA has worked closely with the FBI to investigate every reported jetpack sighting,” the agency added, noting, however, that “so far, none of these sightings have been verified.”
First spotted in August 2020 over Los Angeles International Airport – one of the most crowded airspaces in the world – the alleged elusive jetpacker has bewildered aviation and law enforcement authorities alike, with both the FAA and FBI coming up empty after extended investigations.
The aviation watchdog reiterated this week that “one working theory is that pilots might have seen balloons.” In November 2021, Los Angeles Police Department indeed released a video of a human-shaped inflatable balloon, resembling Jack Skellington from Tim Burton’s ‘The Nightmare Before Christmas’, captured by a police helicopter following one of multiple sightings.
