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LA 'Jetpack Man' Was Probably a Balloon (bbc.com) 67

Long-time Slashdot reader Aighearach shares a report from the BBC: Investigators looking into a series of sightings of a mysterious "jetpack man" flying over Los Angeles say they may in fact have been balloons. The FBI launched an investigation after several pilots reported spotting "a guy in a jetpack" at 3,000ft (915m) above the city's LAX airport last year. But now officials say the pilots may have seen inflatables.

Police helicopter footage apparently shows a Halloween decoration that broke loose and drifted into the sky. The images show what appears to be life-sized balloon effigy of Jack Skellington, from the 1993 Tim Burton film The Nightmare Before Christmas.

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LA 'Jetpack Man' Was Probably a Balloon

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  • by fermion ( 181285 ) on Thursday November 04, 2021 @08:39PM (#61958795) Homepage Journal
    A weather balloon. Do the coverups scenarios never change?
    • A weather balloon.

      What Universe do you live in where Jack Skellington is the weather?!?!?

      But I guess give it a few decades and it'll be like that on this Earth, too.

      • those looking for a conspiracy will find it regardless of the facts.
        • Probably not a conspiracy.
          But some stupid news.

          Or do you really think an airline pilot in descent on an airport, at a speed of perhaps 250 miles, can not distinguish between an "possible jetpack" which is accompanying the plane - aka, trying to fly the same speed - from a ballon drifting in the wind - which is magically 250 miles fast and accompanies the plane at a hight of some 3000 feet? That is aerodynamically impossible, then then the plane would make zero speed through the air.

          I'm pretty sure there ind

          • by sjames ( 1099 ) on Thursday November 04, 2021 @10:32PM (#61959021) Homepage Journal

            I actually doubt it was actual people with jetpacks based on the performance of jetpacks. They simply can't get up all that high for all that long due to very limited fuel capacity.

            I could believe a novelty RC plane or drone though. Much lighter than an actual human with a jetpack, but could look close enough from that distance.

          • by Anonymous Coward
            Occam's Razor is actually what makes this extremely unlikely to have been a jet pack. altitude way beyond jetpack range, speed way way beyond jetpack range AND a helicopter that was able to identify it as a balloon. Occam's Razor says it is almost certainly a balloon.
          • by LKM ( 227954 )

            Or do you really think an airline pilot in descent on an airport, at a speed of perhaps 250 miles, can not distinguish between an "possible jetpack" which is accompanying the plane - aka, trying to fly the same speed - from a ballon drifting in the wind - which is magically 250 miles fast and accompanies the plane at a hight of some 3000 feet?

            Yes, I do believe that airline pilotes do fall victim to optical illusions, just like any other human. I'd venture to guess that most airline pilots have little experi

            • by crunchygranola ( 1954152 ) on Friday November 05, 2021 @04:26AM (#61959391)

              One issue is that human eyes are unable to establish an object's distance after about 18 feet

              You are off by more than an order of magnitude. 97% of people can distinguish a 2 arcminute or better stereoscopic difference. With a 65 mm average pupillary separation, this is 100 m, the actual limit is somewhat greater. You can test this quite easily (assuming you are not one of the people who lack stereoscopic vision, and have the capacity to not kid yourself) by looking around an environment (most neighbourhoods will do) with one eye, then opening the other, and noting the sensation or "feeling of distance" ranges far beyond 18 feet.

              But even 100 m is not helpful when you are travelling at 100 m/s, typical of airliners at low altitude.

              See: Coutant, B. E., & Westheimer, G. (1993). Population distribution of stereoscopic ability. Ophthalmic and Physiological Optics, 13(1), 3–7. doi:10.1111/j.1475-1313.1993.tb00419.x [sci-hub.st].

              • by necro81 ( 917438 )

                You can test this quite easily (assuming you are not one of the people who lack stereoscopic vision, and have the capacity to not kid yourself) by looking around an environment (most neighbourhoods will do) with one eye, then opening the other

                Hmmm.. How far away is that laser [google.com]?

              • Thank you.

                +1 Insightful

            • I think you exaggerate a bit with "poor vision".
              Especially as there are plenty of tricks how you can estimate the distance, even if you do not know the size. In German it is called "Daumensprung". You close one eye, and aim with the other one via your thumb (Daumen), then you close the eye and open the other one. the mage will jump (Sprung) from your brains perspective - the farer away the less it jumps.
              Regarding Jetpack: the only question would be from where did they launch? But I guess to reach 3000 feet

              • by rgmoore ( 133276 )

                Especially as there are plenty of tricks how you can estimate the distance, even if you do not know the size.

                That's nice, but it's quite unlikely a pilot took the time to do this while they were on a landing approach. It's much more likely they took a quick look, estimated the distance and speed, and focused on their primary mission of landing their plane. This is one of the things to think about when considering reports from pilots: they are often focused on focused on their jobs rather than providing th

              • Airline pilots are not holding their hands up and squinting with one eye closed at random objects while they're flying at low altitude. There is a lot of work for them to do, and they have to keep their eyes moving between a wide variety of things, and their hands on the controls.

                • Yeah,
                  but there are _two_ of them in the cockpit.
                  And at 3000 feet, I would assume they glanced over to the object often enough.
                  But anyway, unless one gets caught, we probably never know ^_^

                  • You don't even comprehend your own comments. Glancing often does not fit what you were talking about.

                    Instead of moving the goalposts to "glancing," you could just say, "yes, you're right."

                    But anyway, unless one gets caught, we probably never know

                    And no, you're wrong again! We do know, the police helicopter took a picture of the reported object!

                    • And no, you're wrong again! We do know, the police helicopter took a picture of the reported object!

                      We are not talking about that object.

                      We are talking about the two or three reports about flying suits half a year ago.
                      You seem to have a comprehension problem :P

                    • That's what this story is.
                      You don't comprehend it. You are aliterate. You know how to read individual words and sentences, but you're unwilling or unable to read enough of the words to understand what is going on. Even when you're talking about it.

                      You have a write-only interface.

                    • No.
                      The story is about:
                      "Now we saw a balloon!!"

                      Question: "were the previous sightings of wing suits, balloons, too?"

                      That is what the story is about. It is right in the summary you missed to read.

                    • This is the story about when the report you're talking about happened, the Sheriff sent their helicopter to investigate/arrest the person, and it turned out to be a human-shaped balloon.

                      You're so far off from what was in the summary, there is no question; You're aliterate.

                    • the Sheriff sent their helicopter to investigate/arrest the person, and it turned out to be a human-shaped balloon.
                      Yes. I know.

                      How stupid are you?

                      The next line in the article is: are the tow or three sightings of "wing suits", also baloons?

                      And I argued: most likely not.

                      You're aliterate.
                      That seems to me more true for you, when you did not grasp over an exchange of 4 or 5 arguments, that YOU missed the points.

                    • This is the story about when the report you're talking about happened, the Sheriff sent their helicopter to investigate/arrest the person, and it turned out to be a human-shaped balloon.

                      Even when you scanned the story for some argument material, you were still incapable of consuming and understanding the material.

                      That's peak aliteracy.

          • Occam's argument was that God has to exist, because science is too complicated an answer.

            This is just like Occam's razor; conspiracy theorists will refuse to acknowledge the existence of a complicated world, where initial headlines are full of "it."

      • Why would there have been huge Jack skellington balloons flying over LAX throughout the year? I doubt whoever filled it with helium and lost it the first time wouldn't go back and make the exact same mistake several more times.

        • If they buy a bunch and lose a few, why are you so sure they care? They don't last forever anyway.

          Did you look at the picture in the story? It is clearly a balloon.

    • by louzer ( 1006689 )
      Obligatory:

      The flash of light you saw in the sky was not a UFO. Swamp gas from a weather balloon was trapped in a thermal pocket and reflected the light from Venus.

      • by hey! ( 33014 )

        Years ago I actually saw a broadcast TV news field team reporting a UFO; they trained their cameras on the thing to show the "sparks" trailing behind it. I had a good laugh; it was Jupiter with the four Galilean moons lined up one side. Mistaking a planet for a flying saucer only sounds ridiculous to people because they don't know how much they don't know.

        • by CODiNE ( 27417 )

          My wives' uncle had a similar story. Back in the 80's or early 90's in Sacramento he was listening to the radio and they reported several calls of a UFO sighting coming right around where he lived. I believe it was Westbound a few blocks north of Marconi. He ran outside was actually able to get a good look at it. Some idiot had filled a pie tin with oil or something and tied it to a trash bag to make a hot air balloon. Now and then it would drip a little "beam" of fire. Fortunately it didn't burn anything

          • My wives' uncle had a similar story.

            How many sisters are you married to?

            • by CODiNE ( 27417 )

              Come on man. Just let me earn my hide the UFOs check in peace. I don't need true believers poking holes in my stories.

          • My wife's family passed around their UFO story (funny how it's never *our* family:). While traveling somewhere in the Mojave in the '80's at night, a dark object flew by and/or tracked them for a bit. Recently Uncle told me, "I even drew a picture". I looked at it and he had made a very good sketching of an F117 "Stealth Fighter".

    • A weather balloon. Do the coverups scenarios never change?

      Sometimes it's swamp gas. [imgur.com]

  • by mveloso ( 325617 ) on Thursday November 04, 2021 @09:11PM (#61958847)

    It's amazing how the lowly balloon has caused so much consternation.

    If people could tell the difference between a balloon, a spaceship, a jetpack, and an alien the world would be a better place.

  • while packing for TX. He'll be a lone star.

  • Gravity Industries? https://gravity.co/ [gravity.co] See also: https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/av/... [bbc.co.uk] https://www.youtube.com/watch?... [youtube.com]
  • Did the 'Inflatable' have a surprised look on its face?

    Asking for a friend who misses one.

  • by Malays2 bowman ( 6656916 ) on Friday November 05, 2021 @10:45AM (#61960149)

    1) This was sighted long before Halloween
    2) It was spotted multiple times over the course of a couple months.

    I doubt a party balloon would stay in the air for that long, and even if it could it should've drifted hundereds of miles away during the period of the sightings.

  • Those pilots must have been drunk while flying if they mistake a balloon for a "jet pack wearing man". Either that, or someone is trying to cover-up what really happened.
  • It seemed like a good idea at the time, but in hindsight inflating a blowup doll with helium was a bad idea.

It's a naive, domestic operating system without any breeding, but I think you'll be amused by its presumption.

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