Look, up in the sky!

Maybe it's just me, but it does seem to take a particularly aggressively stupid and malign type of a-hole to take to the skies over airports wearing a jet pack.

Yet, there was he - I'm being a sexist here and presuming he was a "he" - was last week, picked up in the sightline of a commercial airline pilot in Los Angeles last week. (Note that this isn't a pic taken by the pilot. It's just a generic guy jetpacking around.)

While the sighting wasn't confirmed:

On Wednesday evening, Los Angeles International Airport air traffic controllers warned pilots to proceed with caution after spotting what they thought was a man in the sky.

A Boeing 747 pilot "reported seeing an object that might have resembled a jetpack," the Federal Aviation Administration told USA TODAY in a statement. The pilot reported the jetpack approximately 15 miles east of the airport and flying at an elevation of about 5,000 feet. (Source: USA Today)

This wasn't the first reported jetpack flyboy for LAX. 

The supposed jet pack sighting follows several others dating back to early 2020. In December 2020, a Southern California pilot captured a video of what appeared to be a person with a jet pack flying off the Palos Verdes Peninsula at around 3,000 feet.

Another sighting was reported in August 2020, after two different commercial airline pilots reported seeing a man in a jet pack hovering near LAX, ABC News reported. (Source: ABC News)

According to the FAA, they've seen an uptick in "unmanned aircraft sightings" over the last couple of years, and now are getting about 100 a month.

I guess this takes into account all sorts of UFOs. And drones. And model airplanes. And I guess they lump in guys in jetpacks with "unmanned aircraft sightings," even though these sightings are more like manned unaircraft. 

Whatever you want to call it, it's unsettling. Right up there with the aggressively stupid and malign type of a-hole who flashes lasers at flights in hopes (?) of blinding a pilot and causing a crash.

Unauthorized operators flying around airplanes, helicopters and airports is illegal and may be subject to fines and criminal charges, including jail time, the FAA Says. The FAA spokesperson said the agency works with the FBI to investigate these sightings.

If these are the real deal - and no sightings have as yet been confirmed - I hope they throw the book at these gems. 

Bad enough we have to worry about some private plane pilot getting too close. Or seagulls getting sucked into the engines. Or pilot or air traffic controller error that puts two planes on a collision course. Now we have to worry about the laser guys, drone operators, and jetpack jerks. Sheesh.

It would be one thing if it was just the jetpack guy who'd die in a close encounter with a plane. That I could happily live with. But I'm guessing that running into one of them could send the fully loaded, passenger'd up plane crashing and burning. 

I'm sure that for those who've always fantasized being a bird, or one of the Jetsons, strapping on a jetpack and taking off is a true thrill. But how about doing it in an area that's not heavily trafficked by actual airplanes, where there are no flight paths?

Seriously, these guys should be grounded.

And I thought that the vaccine refuseniks were behaving like selfish jerks...