Background
On August 30, 2020, numerous sightings of what appears to be a person flying a jet pack above Los Angeles International Airport (LAX) took place.
The story, first broken by Fox News and also covered by The Drive’s War Zone, the following were some of the exchanges between pilots and air traffic control:
American Flight 1997: “Tower, American 1997, we just passed a guy in a jetpack.”
Tower: “American 1997, OK, thank you. Were they off to your left or right side?”
American Flight 1997: “Off the left side, maybe 300 yards or so, about our altitude.”
Fox 11 reports a Skywest pilot confirmed the sighting:
Skywest Flight: “We just saw the guy passing by us in the jetpack.”
Then the tower alerted an incoming Jet Blue flight to the reported hazard:
Tower: “Jet Blue 23, use caution, a person in a jetpack reported 300 yards south of the LA final at about 3,000 feet, 10 mile final.”
Jet Blue 23: “Jet Blue 23, we heard and we are definitely looking.”
Another pilot chimed in: “Only in LA.”
The Black Vault filed for documents relating to this incident from the FAA. The result of those FOIA requests are below, which also yielded a much longer audio compilation of the Air Traffic Control recordings.
Air Traffic Control Recordings
Document Archive
Jetpack Sighting over Los Angeles International Airport (LAX), August 30, 2020 – Release #1 – [24 Pages, 1.2MB]
Jetpack Sighting over Los Angeles International Airport (LAX), August 30, 2020 – Release #2 – [7 Pages, 1.2MB]
Downy Radar Position Air Traffic Control Recordings about the Jetpack Sighting over Los Angeles International Airport (LAX), August 30, 2020 (RAW .WAV DOWNLOAD, UNEDITED) [29MB]
Downy Radar Position Air Traffic Control Recordings about the Jetpack Sighting over Los Angeles International Airport (LAX), August 30, 2020 (RAW .WAV DOWNLOAD, EDITED. “BUZZING” Track Removed. Corresponding Track Converted to Stereo.) [14MB]
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