When it comes to weird stories that keep getting weirder, the elusive “Jet Pack Guy” of Los Angeles pretty much takes the cake. After multiple reported sightings from airline pilots on more than one occasion of a guy in a jet pack flying around at thousands of feet near Los Angeles International Airport—some of the most congested airspace on earth—as well as ongoing FAA and FBI investigations into the matter, we now have credible video of what seems to be the flying object in question.
The footage doesn’t come to us from some random Reddit board or YouTube channel, either. It was taken during an instructional flight from Sling Pilot Academy in the training area off Palos Verdes. We reached out to the flight school, which is based out of Zamperini Field, in Torrance, California for additional details.
One of the pilots involved in the bizarre incident told The War Zone that they were flying along their route in the practice area between Palos Verdes and Catalina Island when they caught what appeared to at least resemble a guy in a jet pack flying towards them in the opposite direction at about 3,000 feet. The object passed along the right side of their aircraft and kept going until it was out of sight.
There was no communication from the object or about the object on the usually busy radio channel used for the training area. As such, the pilots did report the encounter with the FAA, but because there wasn’t really any detail to add, an official report was not filed.
They were able to grab the video seen below (if for some reason it doesn’t show up in your browser, you can click here to view it directly on Instagram).
A guy flying out over the ocean in a jet pack at around 3,000 feet, especially one without any lifting surfaces, is a puzzling proposition, to say the least. Jet packs that do exist have very short ranges and are not equipped to be flying in dense airspace, especially thousands of feet in the air.
It is possible that this is some sort of a drone dressed up to look like a guy in a jet pack, as seen in the video below. Then the question becomes why would someone be doing this? What could possibly be worth the risk? Also, it’s not like executing such a feat would be a cheap or simple operation. In this case, the craft wasn’t even flying over a populated area, it was out to sea where there are far fewer eyes to even recognize it.
Then again, maybe this is something else altogether. But what?
Let us know what you think is going on in the comments below.
Regardless, our investigation into this matter, which includes multiple open FOIAs, continues.
UPDATE:
The FAA contacted us with the following official statement:
“The FAA has not received any recent reports from pilots who believe they may have seen someone in a jetpack in the skies around Los Angeles. The FAA has taken the sighting reports it has received seriously, and has worked closely with the FBI to investigate them. However, the FAA has been unable to validate the reports.”
This fits with what the pilot told us, that there wasn’t an official report filed.
The War Zone has also learned that the officials are going to contact the flight school directly to investigate this incident further and that they replayed radar tapes from around the time of previous sightings, but did not see anything abnormal. No witnesses on the ground have provided any evidence of someone with a jet pack taking off or landing, either.
Author’s note: A big hat tip to @OinDC for the heads up on the video!
Contact the author: Tyler@thedrive.com