It's a bird. It's a plane. It's a guy in a jet pack.
A couple of pilots got quite a surprise while approaching Los Angeles International Airport over the weekend, when they spotted somebody apparently flying at about 3,000 feet in the air with a jet pack.
The pilot of American Airlines flight 1997 radioed the LAX tower Sunday evening to make the unusual report.
"Tower, American 1997. We just passed a guy in a jet pack,'' the pilot said on the radio transmission.
An air-traffic controller -- noticeably taken aback by the report -- responded, "American 1997, OK, thank you for the update. Left side or right side?''
"Off the left side,'' the pilot responded, "at maybe, uh, 300 yards or so, at our altitude.''
At least one other pilot, aboard a Southwest Airlines flight, also spotted the unusual aviator.
"Tower, we just saw the guy pass by us,'' the pilot reported.
The LAX tower alerted an inbound JetBlue pilot to beware of "a person with a jet pack reported 300 yards south of the L.A. final at about 3,000 feet.''
The pilot responded, "We heard and are definitely looking.''
The bewildered air-traffic controller responded, "Only in LA.''
The Federal Aviation Administration confirmed the jet-pack reports, but said the matter was referred to local law enforcement.
"Two airline flight crews reported seeing what appeared to be someone in a jet pack as they were on their final approaches to LAX around 6:35 p.m. PDT Sunday. The FAA alerted local law enforcement to the reports, and is looking into these reports," said Ian Gregor, Communications Manager for FAA Pacific Division.
