Mysterious ‘jetpack man’ in Los Angeles may not be a man at all, FBI says

The FBI thinks it might have some answers for the people who said they’ve seen what looked like a man wearing a jetpack flying over Los Angeles.

The agency said in a statement that it worked with the Federal Aviation Administration to investigate the claims, but did not find any concrete evidence that could verify the jetpack sightings, the Los Angeles Times reported.

“One working theory is that the pilots might have seen balloons,” the statement said.

A photo obtained by Eyewitness News shows what appears to be a balloon of Jack Skellington, the main character in the 1993 animated movie “The Nightmare Before Christmas,” floating over Los Angeles. That photo was taken in November 2020 by a Los Angeles Police Department helicopter, ABC 11 reported.

That finding came after the FAA received at least two reports of a man in a jetpack that year, one in August and one in October, McClatchy News reported.

The October sighting was reported by a China Airlines pilot, though the FBI said that they also received other reports about the same sighting. The August sighting was reported by at least three pilots, including one from Southwest Airlines and one from American Airlines, McClatchy News reported.

And in July 2021, authorities received more reports about a man in a jetpack, including one from a Boeing 747 pilot that prompted air traffic controllers to warn other pilots about the possibility of an obstacle in the sky, McClatchy News reported.

Some experts speculated that those sightings could have actually been drones, including an odd “mannequin drone,” or a mannequin being carried by a drone, Gizmodo reported, citing documents obtained from the Federal Aviation Administration.

Those experts are skeptical that the unidentified flying object was actually a person, as jetpacks are expensive and would require a lot of energy to carry a person to the altitudes that pilots were reporting the sightings. Dummies and drones, however, are much less expensive and much more accessible, and mannequin-bearing drones have been seen before, Gizmodo reported.

This story was originally published November 2, 2021 at 5:34 PM with the headline "Mysterious ‘jetpack man’ in Los Angeles may not be a man at all, FBI says."