Not Elusive Inventor, Actually an Inflatable Skeleton

For the last 2 years, Angelenos have heard scattered reports of pilots and observers near the Los Angeles Airport of an unidentified person flying vertically in the air, thousands of feet in the air, armed only with his clothes and a small pouch on his back. 

Observers initially assumed it to be held aloft with a rare homemade thruster-equipped backpack, leading to theories as to what kind of backyard inventor became the "Jet Pack Man". A small number of various man-portable thruster systems have been made over the preceding decades, but most carry prohibitive power and fuel requirements to keep the pilot aloft for more than a few minutes. Even the most cutting edge equipment has a maximum safe ceiling in the range of 1,500 feet, if return fuel is accounted for. 

The most recent sighting occurred last July, when one American Airlines pilot reported seeing the mystery man as the aircraft approached LAX. Sightings became a sort of in-joke within the Southern California aviation community, with warnings to "be on the lookout for iron man" or unidentified flying objects. Sightings were infrequent but notable for the break to the relative mundanity in air traffic. In 2020, another American Airlines pilot reported seeing a "guy in a jetpack" at 3,000 feet during his descent, saying at one time the figure was less than 300 yards off their wing. Later that year, a local flight school posted their zoomed-in footage tracking what appeared to be a human-shaped object as it passed by Palos Verdes Peninsula, south of Los Angeles. 

Theories have varied, with the more serious consideration given to an inflatable mannequin carried by drone, or aerial debris small enough to appear as whatever the observer imagines. Now, however, as the decorations from Halloween are taken down, another idea comes to the forefront. Pictures have surfaced, taken around the time of the 2020 sightings, showing an inflatable character from 1993 movie The Nightmare Before Christmas airborne against a backdrop of Los Angeles. The photograph was taken by a sheriff's helicopter patrolling the area, and an untethered inflatable would fit the altitude requirements and lack of ground witnesses in the case.

The theory fits nicely with sightings, as the halloween festivities in the area are likely to be larger scale and wider spread than smaller metropolitan areas. The probability of a large inflatable novelty character slipping free of its restraints to wander the open air has been deemed far more likely than a reclusive genius privately tinkering away on sci-fi equipment. The character, the slender, distinctive Jack Skellington would fit the profile of a backpack-equipped humanoid, with a tapered, slender waist and wide-set fringes along the shoulders. If correct, then the mystery can be laid to rest, until the next sighting.

FMI: https://www.lawa.org/