'Pilots Might Have Seen Balloons': 'Jet Pack Man' Sighting Was Jack Skellington Balloon Flying High Above Los Angeles
LOS ANGELES (CBSLA) — It wasn't a bird, it wasn't a plane, and it wasn't a man in a jetpack.
Images captured by an LAPD helicopter crew of a so-called "jet pack man" sighting were released this week. However, the figure was not actually a man, but a Jack Skellington balloon flying high above the city.
Jack Skellington, by the way, is a skeleton character from the animated film "The Nightmare Before Christmas." The balloon in video captured by the LAPD helicopter crew show the balloon's skeleton face clearly, along with the black suit and bowtie.
This particular sighting happened in early November of last year, in the wake of other sightings reported by jetliner pilots.
The FBI has been working with the FAA to investigate such jetpack sightings in the Los Angeles area and say none of them have yet been verified.
"One working theory is that pilots might have seen balloons," the FBI said in a statement.
In August of last year, pilots reported seeing a person flying in a jet pack just west of the 710 Freeway in the Cudahy and South Gate areas. A couple of months later, a China Airlines crew reportedly spotted "what appeared to be someone in a jet pack" at an altitude of roughly 6,000 feet about seven miles west of LAX.
In another sighting of a possible jet pack 15 miles east of LAX at 5,000 feet altitude, a pilot joked that they were looking for the Marvel superhero Iron Man.
