It’s a bird, it’s a plane … no, it looks like it’s a guy in a jet pack.
The dramatic video captured by an instructor with the Sling Pilot Academy shows what could be the evasive fighter whose exploits in the sky above Los Angeles confused pilots and authorities.
The pilot of the flight school recorded the video at about 3,000 feet near Palos Verdes, south of LA, with Catalina Island visible in the background, according to an Instagram post of the academy.
“The video seems to show a jet pack, but it can also be a drone or another object,” he wrote.
If it’s a “guy in a jet pack,” it remains to be seen if it’s a legal test flight (jet packs are real – there’s a manufacturer near Los Angeles) or related to jet-pack observations near LAX recently caused air traffic disruptions, “the school added.
The Drive reported that one of the pilots on the plane told The War Zone that he was flying between Palos Verdes and Catalina Island when they saw the apparent jet packer swaying in the opposite direction.
There was no communication from the ship or its flight about the usual busy frequency used in the training area, The Drive reported.
The pilots reported the meeting with the FAA, but an official report was not submitted because there were no details, according to the press.
In late August, an American Airlines pilot approaching LAX at about 3,000 feet told an air traffic controller that he saw a solo jet setter passing by.
“Tower, American 1997, I just passed a guy in a jet pack,” the Flight 1997 pilot said, according to the ATC audio station. A Skywest pilot also saw the mystery flying.
The FAA said the incident was handed 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 stunt on social media in crowded LA airspace.