In recent times it seems something quite unexpected has been reported over Los Angeles. Airline flights have been reporting an ‘unidentified man flying a jetpack.’
This jetpack user was at an altitude of 3,000 feet above Los Angeles International Airport which is quite shocking for a lot of reasons. While we don’t know much about all of this just yet, according to CNN the FBI is looking into it. The man is said to have been roughly 30 yards from an American Airlines plane.
NBC News wrote as follows on this interesting event:
Two pilots on two different flights reported seeing a man in a jetpack thousands of feet in the air above Los Angeles on Sunday, prompting an investigation by authorities.
An American Airlines pilot was approaching Los Angeles International Airport at around 6:30 p.m. when he called in the sighting to air-traffic control, according to an audio log. The unidentified flying person was at the plane’s altitude, the pilot said, about 3,000 feet in the air.
“Tower, American 1997. We just passed a guy in a jetpack,” the pilot said.
“Only in LA,” an unidentified person said in the audio log.
Another pilot, on a Southwest Airlines flight according to NBC Los Angeles, also reported seeing the individual in a jetpack and the air-traffic controllers radioed to another airline crew to warn them. The Federal Aviation Administration confirmed the sighting to NBC News in a statement Tuesday.
While this was likely just someone having a bit of fun, it is quite mind-blowing to think about. Sure, we know jetpacks exist but we don’t often hear stories like this which is quite shocking honestly. Of course, they’re expensive and not that easy to get but they are obtainable. What do you think was going on here?
Some seem to believe this in itself is some kind of social media stunt but right now everything is ‘up in the air.’ Sure, as time passes we will likely know more but right now we all need to just wait it out. At the moment no one has come forth to say they were the one in the jetpack and so, things are not easy to figure out just yet.
Fox LA reported as follows on this:
No one has come forward to say they were flying a jetpack, and normally the promotional or fun videos we’ve seen of them are much lower in the sky, aimed at vacationers or thrill-seekers who blast off with a pack attached to their backs for a few seconds of low-level flight.
Efforts to find out more from the pilot went nowhere, and representatives from American Airlines told FOX 11 to contact the FAA. The FAA said they turned the report over to the LAPD for investigation, possibly trying to locate the person via a helicopter or ground patrol. The LAPD says they performed a flyover in the area but were not able to locate anyone that matched that description.
Two retired pilots who currently teach and consult on aviation safety say they would absolutely believe the pilot in that situation, given their trained eyes and visual awareness.
As fun as operating a jetpack sounds, I doubt I’d want to get anywhere near as high up as an airplane would be nor would I want to be somewhat close to one. This kind of thing is dangerous. Jetpacks might sound a bit too futuristic, but they’ve been around for quite some time.