A Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) request has revealed some new insights into the mysterious ”LAX jetpack guy.”
Continue reading: New Theories Emerge About “LAX Jetpack Guy”
Share your questions, experiences, and thoughts below.
As for the two very good questions:
("Why would you show such a disregard for others by doing this in busy airspace, close to commercial aircraft?" and
"Why was a drone-looking-thing spotted out over the open ocean, where it isn’t even likely to attract much attention?")
-- I would add, if it's a drone that can do the things it's doing, it's got to be very expensive, so why would even somebody without social ethics (like the disregard for others thing -- unfortunately too common these days), why would they put their inevitably extremely expensive toy at risk by running it with commercial aircraft and over open ocean? That to me militates against the drone theory. Something that can stay up for long periods at 3,000 feet has got to be pricey. And somebody with the money and skill to build one wouldn't want to lose it with stupid flight patterns.
@Sheryl You're forgetting that this is LA and there are thousands of "influencers" that are mostly idiots and would definitely pull a stupid stunt like this. Risking their expensive drone doesn't matter to them because they've never had to do real work to earn money. There are also thousands more trust fund babies in LA that would do this too. I'm just surprised whoever is responsible hasn't been stupid enough to post it on social media. That makes me think it's probably a trust fund baby vs an influencer. Most "influencers" couldn't resist posting it because they literally live off of attention.
It's not a drone either. Location, altitude, and time aloft would preclude a drone like this from these sightings as well (they have the same issue as an actual jetpack - energy consumption to maintain altitude on an object of this size). Occam's Razor suggests it is a helium-filled person-sized balloon. Reaching and maintaining that altitude is simple with such a device, cheap, and easily mistaken as "flying" with the wind speeds at altitude and the movement relative to the observer in an aircraft. I can't understand why everyone seems to push for the most complicated answer to this mystery at each step - "it's a guy flying a jetpack", "can't be that, must be a drone flying at 6,000 feet", etc.
Wesley,
theses assumptions about "influencers", "trust fund babies", and people that live in Los Angeles seem a bit misplaced. perhaps you are none of these and that's fine but...I think your projections are pretty negative considering what this piece was about. take a breath.
I keep thinking, -- jetpack or drone, it's gotta be a prank that Elon Musk is doing for fun.
As a pilot, I’m more concerned with the probability this is a drone than an actual person piloting. A pilot can react to a situation. I remote pilot (drone) does not have the same situational awareness. For the moment, this is an entertaining story and a bit of a mystery. At some point however, a significant accident will occur between an aircraft and a drone. This is dangerous stuff when drones are flying into B,C,D & even E airspace.
What is their motive ? Probably the entertainment factor at watching people’s reactions and people writing stories about it.
"And somebody with the money and skill to build one wouldn’t want to lose it with stupid flight patterns."
Because god knows no one with money and skill has ever, say, launched a car into space, just to show off.
It's Iron Man! Someone has reversed engineered a comic book theme & is testing it. Or has access to some really advanced technology.
What people are forgetting about the theory of a drone/helium person-shaped balloon is the velocity, height and duration required to pull off what is being reported. Modern jetliners need to travel at 200 MPH to maintain flight or they'll fall out of the sky. I am unaware of any drones that can do that, unless you count military weapon based packages, and no one would confuse them as being humanoid shaped. And the military wouldn't test them in or near commercial airspace.
Is it ET? It qualifies as Unidentified Flying Object, albeit humanoid shaped.
Pretty sure someone on tiktok already stated he cgi generated this video as a prank and it blew up after a few people wanted to jump on the band wagon and say they saw it too after watching the news story
Kyle is absolutely correct. As a fellow pilot, I agree with his concern over this very serious situation. An airliner ingesting whatever this is into an engine can be disastrous. Remember what birds did to cause the Miracle on the Hudson incident and that time it was a successful (in terms of lives) outcome. This object, whatever it is, needs to be removed from the airspace and the person held responsible before they have blood on their hands.