FBI hunting flying man at California airport

Is it a bird? Is it a plane? No, it looks like some guy in a jet pack. Could be James Bond.

People flying drones near airports are posing an ever-increasing danger to aircraft landing and taking off.

Now it appears people flying themselves over airports may also start becoming a threat to planes.

Two airline flight crews say they have seen what appeared to be someone flying near their flight path in a jet pack as they approached Los Angeles International Airport (LAX), in California.

The Federal Bureau of Investigation is working to figure out what happened.

Fox 11 published a recording of the conversations between the LAX control tower and the pilots.

“Tower, American 1997, we just passed a guy in a jet pack,” an American Airlines pilot said.

A controller asked whether the jet-pack flier was on his right or left.

“Off the left side, maybe 300 yards or so, about our altitude,” the pilot said.

Another person, identified as a SkyWest pilot, corroborated the claim. “We just saw the guy passing by us in the jet pack,” he told controllers.

The tower warned an incoming JetBlue pilot of the danger.

“Jet Blue 23, use caution, a person in a jet pack is reported 300 yards south of the LA final, at about 3,000 feet, 10 mile final,” he said.

The pilot replied, “Jet Blue 23, we heard, and we are definitely looking.”

Another pilot summed it up best, with the time-honoured phrase: “Only in LA.”

This incident raises the questions of whether sustained flying at such altitude is possible in a jet pack, and if so, whether it is currently illegal or needs to be made so very quickly.