By Tim Binnall
The mystery surrounding sightings of what appears to be a person flying a jetpack near Los Angeles International Airport was seemingly revived this week when yet another pilot spotted the strange aerial anomaly. The peculiar incident reportedly occurred on Thursday afternoon as an American Airline jet was approximately 15 miles from LAX and approaching the site for landing. The normally routine conclusion of the flight took a weird turn when the pilot spotted what they described to the nearby air traffic control tower as "a guy with a jetpack" soaring through the sky at an altitude of "about 4,500 feet."
Alas, it would seem that neither the pilot nor anyone on the crew managed to photograph or film the suspected jetpack-clad individual. That said, the FAA did issue a statement confirming the report and noted that the agency "has worked closely with the FBI to investigate every reported jetpack sighting. So far, none of these sightings have been verified. One working theory is that pilots might have seen balloons." To that end, Thursday's sighting is the fourth such case of an 'unidentified flying person' reported near LAX over the last two years following a pair of sightings in 2020 as well as another incident last July.
The mystery appeared to be solved last November when the FBI released LAPD helicopter footage of an errant balloon shaped like the character Jack Skellington from the hit film Nightmare Before Christmas and argued that the seven-foot-long toy was, in fact, the 'jetpack man' seen by the pilots. Time will tell whether this latest sighting is another case of misidentification or if the individual behind the sightings thought they'd escaped justice and decided to go out for another flight to celebrate the start of summer. What do you think is behind the jetpack sightings? Share your theory with us at the C2C Facebook page.