On Sunday, two commercial airline pilots reported seeing a man flying with a jetpack at about 3,000 ft in the air during their final approach to Los Angeles International Airport.
A mysterious man flying in a jetpack
The pilot of American Airlines Flight 1997, which came from Philadelphia, told air traffic control that they had just passed a guy wearing a jetpack around 6:35 p.m. Sunday on their last leg of landing.
The exchange between aviation personnel was recorded and uploaded on LiveATC.net, which occasionally shares live and archived recordings of radio transmissions of air traffic control.
According to The New York Times, the air traffic controller asked the pilot if the man they saw wearing a jetpack was to the plane's left or right side. The aircraft pilot responded by saying they saw the individual about 300 yards to the plane's left side.
After the initial report of the pilot of American Airlines, another approaching aircraft reported that they saw the same man flying near their plane, and nearby aircraft were asked by air traffic control to keep a lookout for any more sightings.
The reports have prompted investigations by both the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) and the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) to figure out the truth behind the mystery.
American Airlines declined to identify their pilot who made the initial report, saying that inquiries of the matter should be directed to the FAA. A JetBlue official did not comment on the incident as well.
A pilot and aviation professor, Seth Young, who teaches at Ohio State University, said that flying very close to a commercial aircraft was a very dangerous thing to do. He noted that the busy airspace at and around the Los Angeles International Airport made the situation even more complicated.
The FAA said that the report of the incident was transferred over to the Los Angeles Police. Authorities revealed that they had not seen any individual with a jetpack near the area, leaving the identity of what came close to the aircraft a mystery, as reported by ABC News.
A common occurrence
The aviation agency said that pilots, law enforcement personnel, and the general public had reported an increasing number of sightings of unmanned aircraft over the past two years. The FAA revealed that every month, it received more than 100 reports of similar incidents.
The agency also noted that if the sighting were found actually to be a person wearing a jetpack, he would have conducted an illegal act of flying in restricted airspace without permission from the airport in the vicinity.
There are currently several human jetpacks in development capable of lifting a man into the air and up to an altitude of 12,000 ft. The equipment, however, carries considerable price tags of about $500,000.
Retired Marine Colonel Steve Ganyard, an ABC News Contributor, said that the dangers of the incident are due to the possibility that the man flying with a jetpack could bring the entire plane down if he passed at the wrong spot.
Ganyard said that while jetpack technology is a positive breakthrough in the field of aviation, people should take care of flying them and not place public lives at risk.
