By Tim Binnall
In a bizarre story out of Los Angeles, the pilot of a jet coming in for a landing at LAX reported seeing a person in a jetpack flying alongside their aircraft. The very strange incident reportedly occurred on Sunday evening as an American Airlines flight was headed towards Los Angeles International Airport. The normally routine task of landing the plane took a weird turn when the pilot looked out his window and spotted a proverbial 'rocketeer' in the sky next to the airliner.
Understandably concerned about the 'unidentified flying person,' the pilot promptly contacted the control tower at LAX to report the curious sighting. "We just passed a guy in a jetpack," he told them with a tone suggesting that he was more annoyed than bewildered by the odd aerial interloper. To their credit, officials at the airport also seemed to take the sighting in stride and simply asked "were they off to your left side or right side?"
In response to the inquiry, the pilot said "off to the left side, maybe 300 yards or so, at about our altitude," which was around 3,000 feet at the time. The sighting was subsequently confirmed by two other pilots who told the tower that they had also seen the mysterious individual flying near the airport. Although the series of sightings sound somewhat hard to believe, aviation experts say that it is possible that someone with an advanced jetpack could actually pull off the foolish feat.
As one might imagine, authorities are taking the matter seriously since someone flying a jetpack in the congested airspace around LAX could have disastrous consequences. Attempts to locate and identify the individual at the center of the case have so far proven futile. One suspects that now that their misadventure has spawned international headlines and likely would result in some kind of legal trouble, 'jetpack man' will likely stay silent and, hopefully, stick to the ground.