wingsuit scare – A military Gulfstream pilot reported a potential skydiver at about 4,000 feet near LAX, prompting controllers to scramble and warn a landing flight. The incident follows years of puzzling “jetpack man” sightings investigated by the FBI.
For the people working the final stretch into Los Angeles International Airport, Sunday’s afternoon felt like déjà vu.
Shortly before landing at LAX around 2:40 p.m. a military transport Gulfstream jet pilot told air traffic controllers that they “just had a potential skydiver around 4. 000 feet. ” according to audio associated with ATC.com. The controller’s reply came with immediate surprise and a call for clarification.
“We just had somebody cross above us around 4,000 feet in a wingsuit,” the pilot said.
“Are you serious?” the controller asked, before warning an American flight that was next in line to land. “We’re looking for him,” the American pilot answered.
The Federal Aviation Administration did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
The report landed in a Los Angeles area already primed for the weird. More than five years after a run of mysterious “jetpack man” sightings in the airspace near LAX, people are still comparing almost-any airborne figure to the same lingering question: what, exactly, was out there?
In December 2020, a video purporting to show a person flying with a jetpack was captured by people taking part in an instructional flight out of Torrance airport. By that point, the FBI was already investigating two other possible jetpack sightings near LAX from August and October of that year.
The August sighting had been called in by two commercial pilots—one from American Airlines and another from JetBlue—minutes apart.
At the time, experts suggested a more likely scenario: an electric drone, perhaps with a mannequin attached. What remains unclear now is whether Sunday’s latest reported wingsuit incident is connected to those earlier “jetpack man” reports. The pilot told controllers they saw someone “cross above us” at around 4. 000 feet. but investigators haven’t publicly linked it to the earlier events.
Even without that connection confirmed, the timing alone shows why controllers react the way they did. Sunday’s exchange wasn’t abstract. An American flight was next in line to land. and controllers said they were “looking for him.” In an environment where a few seconds can matter. the past doesn’t fade—it just waits in the background. ready to reappear when another figure is reported high above the runway.
LAX skydiver wingsuit jetpack man ATC audio FAA FBI investigation Gulfstream American Airlines JetBlue Torrance airport electric drone
So was it actually a jetpack guy or just some drone? LAX can’t catch a break.
4,000 feet?? That’s so low like wth. If they were “looking for him” and it was real, that’s terrifying but also I feel like someone keeps filming the wrong thing.
I don’t get why they keep calling it “jetpack man” when it’s literally described as a wingsuit. Isn’t that like… the opposite of a jetpack? Maybe the FBI just has the wrong vibe and that’s why nothing gets solved.
This is probably another mannequin-on-a-drone thing like they said before. They always “scramble” for something and then it turns out to be a toy or a stunt. Also why are we even believing audio from ATC.com like that can’t be accurate? I swear LAX news stories just loop the same weird footage every year.