Los Angeles Times

The return of ‘ jetpack man?’

- By Richard Winton

A video shows what may be a man with a jetpack off the Palos Verdes Peninsula.

The case of the “jetpack guy” f lying over Los Angeles has taken another turn with a new video purporting to show an object f lying off the Palos Verdes Peninsula.

The latest sighting occurred Dec. 21 but only added to the mystery. According to the Drive website, the jetpack was seen by people on an instructio­nal f light out of Torrance’s municipal airport. Someone with Sling Pilot Academy took a video of the object, seen f lying at a high speed for seconds before going out of frame.

The FBI is already examining two earlier reported sightings. As for the Palos Verdes Peninsula incident, FBI spokeswoma­n Laura Eimiller said: “We’re aware of it and are continuing to investigat­e the reports.”

In a statement, the Federal Aviation Administra­tion said it had 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,” the statement added. “However, the FAA has been unable to validate the reports.”

The f irst sighting occurred Aug. 30, when an American Airlines pilot radioed in with a report. “Tower, American 1997. We just passed a guy in a jetpack,” the pilot said. Minutes later came another report, this time from a pilot approachin­g LAX in a JetBlue airliner: “We just saw the guy pass us by in the jetpack.”

In October, a China Airlines pilot approachin­g LAX reported seeing a jetpack f lying at an altitude of 6,000 feet. That’s more than a mile up.

There are few jetpacks in the world, and experts have said they are dubious the sightings are really of a man f lying around the L. A. Basin. For one thing, the altitude reported by the pilots would be difficult to maintain with the fuel capacity of a jetpack.

Several suggested a more likely scenario: an electric drone — perhaps with a mannequin attached.

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