It’s a bird, it’s a plane … no, apparently it’s a guy in a jet pack.
Dramatic video captured by an instructor with the Sling Pilot Academy shows what could be the elusive flight whose exploits in the skies of Los Angeles confused pilots and officials.
The flight school pilot took the video at about 3,000 feet near Palos Verdes, south of LA, with Catalina Island visible in the background, according to a post on the academy’s Instagram.
“The video appears to show a jet pack, but it can also be a drone or some other object,” he wrote.
“If you’re a ‘guy in a jet pack,’ you have to know if it’s a legal test flight (the backpacks are real – there’s a manufacturer near Los Angeles) or related to the jet pack sightings near LAX that recently caused air traffic disruptions, ”added the school.
Drive reported that one of the plane’s pilots told The War Zone that they were flying between Palos Verdes and Catalina Island when they saw the apparent jet packer whizzing past in the opposite direction.
There was no communication from the ship or its flight on the normally occupied frequency used in the training area, The Drive reported.
The pilots reported the meeting with the FAA, but an official report was not made because there were no details, according to the agency.
In late August, an American Airlines pilot approaching LAX at about 3,000 feet told an air traffic controller that he saw a lone jet setter whizzing by.
“Tower, American 1997, we just passed a guy in a jet pack,” said the pilot of Flight 1997, according to the published ATC audio. A Skywest pilot also saw the mysterious flight.
The FAA said the incident was turned over to the LAPD – but the police agency later said it had not received a report from the FAA.
Some have suggested that the aviator may have performed a dangerous social media maneuver in Los Angeles’ busy airspace.